Posted by Joshua on Thursday, June 30th, 2011

The squeeze on Assad
The regime of Bashar Assad is tottering. His fall would probably trigger a short-term surge in violence, but a better government would emerge
The Economist, Jun 30th 2011 | DAMASCUS | from the print edition

Patience, weapon as well as virtue
IT WAS the biggest meeting of its kind for decades: under the watchful eye of President Bashar Assad’s security goons, 150 dissidents, veteran opposition figures and former political prisoners met in Damascus on June 27th to denounce the regime’s brutality and demand a peaceful transition to democracy. The street protesters dismissed the conference as a compromise with the regime. They want no truck with it. “We hate the government,” says one young man who was detained and tortured. “That’s all that counts now.” Other demonstrators parody Muammar Qaddafi’s threat to hunt down opponents “alley by alley”. “Alley by alley, house by house,” they chant, “We want your head, O Bashar.” But the Damascus meeting, and uprisings in towns such as Hama and Deir ez-Zor, shows that Syria’s opposition has gone from being a few scattered groups holding spontaneous, isolated protests in March to become a nationwide force.

More than 100,000 people now demonstrate every Friday and the regime cannot rein them in, though it has closed roads to restive towns, reinforced the borders and restricted access to the internet. Demonstrations have been held in at least 150 towns and villages in all corners of the triangle-shaped country. Malls and souks are deserted. Cafés are half-full, the smell of cardamom coffee and cherry tobacco spicing the habitués’ anxious questions.

Will Syria end like Egypt and Tunisia? It seems unlikely, at least in the short run. In those countries the army sided with the protesters, whereas in Syria it has not. Might Syria follow Libya’s example? So far, there are no signs of a regional split. What about Iran, which brutally and successfully crushed a revolt in 2009 and which is a close Syrian ally? Even that is different. Iran is run by an elected government (though the poll was rigged), not a single family. It has endless oil reserves; its sectarian divide is minor and its security forces more sophisticated. Syria’s have so far killed 1,500 people, ten times as many as in Iran. Most significantly, the Assad regime—half a dozen family members call the shots—has acted erratically. Bashar, the president, swings between brutal crackdowns and vacuous concessions. That does not bode well for a dictator under pressure.

In contrast, Syria’s opposition is becoming more coherent, as well as more widespread. It is centred on a youth movement based outside the capital. Its detractors are right when they say that few articulate leaders have emerged, no formal structures exist and many of the demonstrations have taken place outside big cities.

But this is no peasant revolt. It has the support of large parts of the Sunni Muslim clergy. University graduates and longstanding dissidents, on the fringes at first, now march alongside day labourers. Political parties are being revived, including a Liberal Party which was stillborn six years ago. The city of Hama—site of a massacre of protesters ordered by Mr Assad’s father in 1982—slipped briefly out of official control in May. In recent days the security forces seem to have withdrawn from the city altogether.

The protesters are resilient partly because they are organising themselves into many small groups. Activists are setting up cells of about 20 people, connected to each other by only one leader. Some networks rely on the anonymity of the internet. But with only about a fifth of Syrians online, traditional bonds are more important. Tribal, professional and collegiate relationships of trust are harder to shut down than phone lines.

But if their organisation is loose, the protesters show a remarkable unity of purpose. They want what everyone in the Arab spring wants: elections, freedom of speech and assembly, protected status for minorities, an end to the regime’s repression. Some organisers have asked eminent economists for advice on market reforms. They show political sophistication by talking of a “civil” democracy, not a “secular” one. To many Muslims, secular means godless and wayward.

If the demonstrators were to topple the government, they could draw on capable technocrats to form an interim administration. Among them is Abdullah Dardari, a former deputy prime minister and senior United Nations official, who is liked from Washington to Riyadh. He was Mr Assad’s chief economic reformer until he was fired soon after the protests started—a target for the regime’s hardliners and a scapegoat for its failings.

In the past the Assads have relied on public indifference as well as outright repression. Syrians used to look at neighbouring Lebanon and Iraq and conclude that stability mattered more than freedom. But the killing of so many countrymen this year is changing that view. “We have become citizens, when once we were sheep,” says a middle-class Damascene. Fear of the security forces, which once kept millions at home, is ebbing. No authoritarian state can survive a sustained decline in its authority—and the government’s writ is shrinking visibly. The police no longer issue speeding tickets or parking fines. Unlicensed traders in the souks—once chased away—now occupy prime spots. Illegal construction is rampant. “Everyone is adding a new floor to their house,” says a home owner. “Officials no longer object.”

Above all, the killings and detentions are failing to cow the protesters. Torture victims have become protest organisers. At an underground meeting in June, one of many victims of the regime described being doused in cold water before being electrocuted by cables attached to his genitals. His aim—to inspire, not scare, the protesters—seemed to be achieved.

The momentum of change may accelerate soon. Ramadan begins in early August and many Syrians will then start to visit their mosques, rallying points for the demonstrations, daily, rather than weekly. The protest leaders think this may prove a turning point: “Friday every day,” they say.

Many Western observers are sympathetic to the protesters but sceptical of their strength and coherence. What matters more is the regime itself. Its power is fast eroding. It could collapse under the weight of its own failings.

Brick wall ahead

The immediate threat comes from the economy. Business activity is down by about half, according to entrepreneurs and analysts. A company selling car-engine oil has seen sales drop by 80%. “And this is not a luxury product,” says one of the owners. Most firms have sacked employees or cut pay or both. According to rough estimates, unemployment has doubled this year from about 10%. Officials worry that grain supplies are low and food shortages could come soon. Trade is down between 30% and 70%, depending on where you are, and that was before a new round of sanctions imposed by the European Union, Syria’s biggest trading partner. Foreign investment, on which Syrian growth has been built in recent years, has dried up. In a recent speech, Mr Assad talked about the threat of “economic collapse”.

Public finances are in deep trouble. The president has raised government salaries and various subsidies to appease the populace. He cannot afford to do this. The government will probably print the money to meet its promises, so runaway inflation is likely, further fuelling popular anger as cash deposits become worthless.

Capital flight is rampant. Drivers on the roads into Lebanon talk of clients going from their bank in Damascus straight to one in Beirut, carrying large bags. According to one estimate, $20 billion has left the country since March, putting pressure on the Syrian pound. To slow capital flight, the government has raised interest rates. A phone company controlled by the Assad family sent out messages urging people to put money back into their accounts.

But a run on the banks cannot be ruled out. Over the past few years, about 60% of lending in Syria has been for people to buy their own cars. Many can no longer keep up with payments. A leading financier says, “If one of the smaller banks defaults, we all go down.” Some branches are even displaying millions of dollars—in bundles of notes piled head high—to reassure worried customers. Some keep enough cash in the vaults to repay almost half their depositors on the spot.

“We are heading for a brick wall,” says a man responsible for several percentage points of GDP. With the regime bust, the elite is likely to be asked to bail it out. Rami Makhlouf, Syria’s richest man and the president’s cousin, said as much during a recent press conference. Having pledged to give up part of his wealth, he added: “I call upon Syrian business leaders to follow this example because our nation is in need of support. The time has come for giving rather than taking.”

But Syria’s captains of industry are asking whether they must “go down with the ship”, as one puts it. Some are taking their children out of private schools in Damascus to send them abroad. One prominent businessman who long flaunted his closeness to the president has given a Western ambassador a list of his supposed disagreements with the regime. “For my file,” he says. Another has been donating blood to support the protesters. In Homs, the country’s third city, businesses have started paying protesters’ expenses.

The central compact of the Assad regime is breaking down. The president’s family is from a minority Muslim sect, the Alawites, who are rank outsiders in Syria, accounting for around 10% of the population. His father seized power in 1970 and struck a bargain with the richest merchants, who are mostly from the Sunni majority, who make up 75%. In return for political support, the regime pledged to protect their wealth. The merchants got rich but few warmed to the Assads or their Alawite cronies, who have behaved like mafiosi, demanding a slice of every pie. Now a growing number of merchants believes the regime has become bad for business. They think that rather than ensuring stability, it is the main cause of instability, deliberately stoking sectarian tensions to scare people off the street.

Other parts of the Assad coalition are wobbling, too. Christians, numbering around 10%, have long backed the regime, calculating that they are better off with the Alawites than they would be under majority Sunni rule. But that too may be changing. Christian leaders who were fervently backing the regime a month ago are now more cautious. They still fear being targeted if civil strife erupted. But it is no longer clear the Alawites would protect them. Some Christians have joined protests.

Syria’s sizeable Kurdish minority (about 10% of the population) is also trying to work out who would best serve their interests. The regime has offered to return the citizenship which it took away from some of them in 1963. Iraqi Kurdish leaders, including President Jalal Talabani, whose people across the border have won autonomy, have been giving advice. Some Syrian Kurds are demonstrating against the regime—though they (and the protest leaders) are wary of making the opposition seem like an ethnic uprising.

Even the Assads’ own Alawite minority is not guaranteed to support the regime. If there were a civil war they would no doubt stick together. But Alawite families provide some of the most prominent dissidents, including a poet called Adonis, Aref Dalila, an economist, and Louay Hussein, a writer and activist. Although the Assads have looked after their own relatives, most Alawites remain desperately poor. Some villages in their home region near the Turkish border do not have running water. Their leaders are said to have quietly contacted Sunni imams to seek security guarantees in return for abandoning the Assads.

Reform, repression or regional war?

Indeed, the only people the regime can really count on seem to be the security forces. The top brass—mostly staffed by Alawite loyalists—has given no hint of switching sides. And now that they have spilled so much blood, their options are limited. Even so, months of cracking down are taking a toll. In some hotspots troops are short of rations and depend on local people for food. Expanding operations further will be difficult. A number of units are being kept out of the fight because they are not trusted, especially ones filled with Sunnis. Manaf Tlass, a senior commander in the elite Republican Guard and son of a former defence minister, is staying home for unknown reasons.

According to some analysts, only a quarter of the total armed forces of roughly 400,000 is well equipped and ready to fight—and of these, only half, or 50,000 men, is really reliable. Twice that number is demonstrating each week. So far, the regime has been lucky in that the uprisings have been sequential, moving from one place to the next. If the protesters rose up at once, the regime could lose control. That is beginning to happen.

So what next? One possibility is that the regime might change course and try to reform. It has made a number of promises to protesters, such as new laws on political parties, elections in August and a reduction of the privileged status of the ruling Baath party. It has called a “national dialogue summit” for mid-July to talk about these. But such promises sound insincere. It is not clear who might attend the summit (the opposition says the crackdown must stop first). The president has been talking about political reform for a decade. Given the bloodshed, his promises would almost certainly be too little, too late—even if they were fulfilled, which they may not be. The regime seems incapable of opening up. Amnesties are followed by waves of arrests. The president’s cult of personality has grown since the protests started. Reform would anger the security services, his only loyal allies. “They are playing for time and trying to take the wind out of the demonstrations,” says one observer in Damascus. But “the system cannot be reformed,” says a former top official, bluntly.

So might the regime go the other way, attempting harsher crackdowns and targeting churches and mosques—perhaps through proxies—to divide and rule the sects? A growing number of citizens are arming themselves. Future tussles with the security forces are likely to result in many more deaths. But a violent meltdown is not inevitable. The Alawites seem unlikely to start a civil war. They are a small minority and would probably withdraw to their mountain redoubt if under existential threat. They might seek to provoke communal or religious clashes. But Syria has seen no big communal clash since 1862, when Muslims burned down Christian houses in Damascus. You might think that Syria could see an Islamist takeover. But, when the Muslim Brotherhood was a legitimate political party in the 1950s, it got only 3-6% of parliamentary seats. Even government insiders—with an interest in playing up the threat—estimate that the brothers would get at most 15% today.

Perhaps the regime could try to start a regional war to distract from problems at home? It could attack Israel directly or via its ally Hizbullah in Lebanon. It could ask for more Iranian support than it already gets, even at the risk of drawing in Saudi Arabia on the side of the opposition. The region’s main faultlines would then be starkly exposed: Arabs v Persians, Jews against the rest. But the Middle East is always full of such talk. It rarely amounts to much (though when it does the consequences are terrible). Iran, Israel, Hizbullah and Saudi Arabia all stand to lose a great deal from an all-out conflict in Syria. The Assad regime has long seen its backing for the Palestinian cause as a source of prestige at home and in the region. But among other Arabs (including many Palestinians), the Syrian regime is coming to be seen as toxic, not just for its brutality but for what many think has been its cynical manipulation of the Palestinian issue.

Patience, weapon as well as virtue
Lastly, might the Syrian regime split or change from within? Sunni officers staged three coups in quick succession after independence in 1946. The chances of that happening again are small. Among the Assads, Bashar’s is the most acceptable public face. There seems little mileage in ditching him. The Assads have been anticipating coups for 40 years and have cleverly compartmentalised the security forces.

So perhaps the best outcome would be some form of negotiated transition under international auspices. Turkey, a one-time ally of the Assads, is working on a deal that would save the family face and give the Sunnis more power. Ahmet Davutoglu, its foreign minister, is due to visit Syria soon. Russia, which has a naval base near Tartus, is also taking a keen interest. A bargain could be struck if (when?) the regime loses control over parts of the country. Protesters might take over one or more cities like Hama. Some villages and valleys are already barricading themselves in.

A Syrian denouement may not yet be imminent but the regime is tottering. The extraordinary endurance of demonstrators week after week is paying off. Patience has been the key to many challenges to the ancient thrones of Damascus. On a visit 150 years ago Mark Twain wrote wryly of the three-millennia-old city: “She has looked upon the dry bones of a thousand empires, and will see the tombs of a thousand more before she dies.”

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Comments (249)

Hilariously conceived title: “His fall would probably trigger a short-term surge in violence, but a better government would emerge”

Economist, serving the zionist agenda as usual!

>Even that is different. Iran is run by an elected government (though the poll was rigged)

HAHAHAHA, oh gosh, hilarious. This is retarded.

>According to some analysts, only a quarter of the total armed forces of roughly 400,000 is well equipped and ready to fight—and of these, only half, or 50,000 men, is really reliable. Twice that number is demonstrating each week.

More western venom. In fact, Syria can mobilise the reservists and they’re quite reliable, well trained, experienced and in high morale. As usual, brain dead analysis.

This doesn’t really deserve much more comment. It won’t affect the situation in Syria which is snowballing in the government’s favour.

The Economist article is excellent. It is based on facts and talking to people on the inside. It is time for Assad to accept a Turkish deal and retire to Iran. He can stay and drag Syria into the abyss with him, but perhaps he will see the light.

That article is indeed hilarious and indicative of the complete and utter ignorance (willful of course) of the writers. It starts out by saying that Bashar al Assad’s regime is tottering. What a bunch of garbage disguised as analysis. If anything, Bashar al Assad has strengthened his control and the reforms he is implementing are a sign of strength, not weakness. But the part that really takes the cake is this:

“If the demonstrators were to topple the government, they could draw on capable technocrats to form an interim administration. Among them is Abdullah Dardari, a former deputy prime minister and senior United Nations official, who is liked from Washington to Riyadh.”

These idiots don’t even bother to engage in even a little research to find out that most of the Syrians protesting actually despised Abdullah Dardari because of his economic policies, which they viewed as having increased the wealth gap in Syria. But he is liked “from Washington to Riyadh?” Hahaha. What a silly joke and an amateur piece of writing.

Yeah, it makes for good comedy though, that’s the extent of analysis in the west, unfortunately.

Notice how everyone who implements western globalisation strategies is now a “technocrat”, as well. I think the last 6 years in Syria have proven that “liberisation” of the economy simply takes people’s money away and gives them debt in its place. Opening the banking system was a big mistake.

Yet, these are the “reforms” the pro-west tools will push for with even harder furiousity. It doesn’t matter what people want, if you want to be recognised as a “democracy” you have to implement all the laws handed down by the international bankers to western governments. Otherwise you will be taken out if you are weak.

i will be posting this message every day till the 7th 07 2011 ,sorry in advance .
In respond to Calls from outside Syria to destroy the internal Syrian economy ,Syrians from around the world are supporting the Syrian pound; we will transfer money to our families in Syria or simply open new bank accounts in Syria between: 1/07/2011 – 07/07/2011

Louai,
No need to apologize, I’ll do the same 🙂
===========================

I have two friends who just came back from Syria, the support of the government and for the president is huge and nobody if forcing anybody to go in the street or fake their support, it’s all genuine, who wrote the economist article doesn’t understand how Syrians react when they get attacked internationally, we have allergy to any intervention and we tend to fight back. It’s not an easy game.

The role of Russia will be low-key but determinant, not the least because its position is usually in tandem with that of China. My sources indicate that Moscow has made up its mind about Assad that he must go. The Kremlin still does not want overt military intervention in Syria or public UN declarations but they are no longer opposed to other covert means of pressure. Similarly, in Libya, after strongly opposing the escalation of NATO’s bombing campaign, Russia is now not objecting to the arming of the Libyan resistance by France (China has also extended its feelers to the resistance now). As I discussed earlier with JL, Moscow ultimately does not want to be on the wrong side of history and will support an exit for Assad but only through quiet back channels away from the limelight.

I’ve received word that Bandar has Hariri on the run. Hariri embezzled half of the money allocated for terrorist/agitation operations in Syria. A fracture within the ranks of the conspirators is to our advantage. It has been leaked out that Bandar has threatened Hariri with the release of documents revealing that he was behind his own father’s assassination.

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From SANA:

DAMASCUS, (SANA)-Army Chief of Staff, General Dawoud Rajha said that Syria encounters a big conspiracy and a real war which target its existence where the West depends on fabricating and misleading facts and information.

“The foreign sides deliberately ignore the acts of killings, sabotaging private and public properties and terrifying the innocent civilians at the hands of the armed terrorist organizations,” General Rajha said

Beg to differ. Cheep songs are a dime a dozen, cheap performers, and screech composers are also a dime a dozen. Shabee7a, on the other hand, are a dime a ton (literally).

Men7ebbak
Ancient Epidemiology,
Issue 2011, date March 15, 3011

A mysterious mental disease with symptoms that includes as a first stage, the patient’s (known as the men7ebbakji) devolution from the status of moron to that of an imbecile and subsequently to an idiot, the latter was commonly mistaken for shabbee7*, which is state of further decline beyond any IQ measure or classification available even to our 31st century. It is unclear, even today, how long the transformation can take, but it depends on the initial state of the patient. If the patient mental capacity was a little higher than that of a moron, the transformation can take up to three or four months and could easily be accelerated by the patient’s inability to understand the turmoil around her/him. However, it is well documented that once in the moron state, the decline to idiot can take only few seconds. Some patience exhibited the ability to switch between the four stages, but most, oscillated, quite violently between idiocy and tashbee7 in its verbal and physical manifestations.

While not life threatening to the mental patient, it is life threatening to all others since its symptoms also include violence and vulgarity. The origin of the disease is not easy to identify, but we are sure that it is not bacterial nor is plague like in terms of association with the abundance of rodents. In fact, it was argued the chief narcissists who were the subject of irrational adoration that the disease can generally be eradicated by bacteria and rats.

To reach an epidemic state, me7ebbak requires a filthy social and political condition called totalitarianism which induces ignorance, isolation, and incapacitates rational and critical thinking. Such conditions were prevalent during the dark ages and were nearly eradicated by the start of the 21st century except for a few countries, where the disease was known to remain epidemic.

Some early scientists in the 21st century argued that it is a mutation of another milder disease known as personality cult, but the both the permanence and excessiveness of the psychotic need to look at, carry, wear, or kiss a photo of the subject of irrational adoration far exceeded that of personality cult. It was discovered from archeological evidence that in afflicted countries, such photos and statues were ubiquitous making the men7ebbakji incapable of distinguishing between the country and its failing autocrat. There are evidence that propensity for believing and concoting strange conspiracy theories has reached a comical, yet dengerous level among the patients, but it remains to be seen whether this is a cause for predispisition or a symptom of the disease itself.

To be continued ….

————————
* Given the wide range of irrational symptoms of the disease, its last stage (Tashbee7) demands a separate article alltogether, which is forthcoming.

Al-Arabiya caught using a photograph from Iraq and saying it is from Dar3a. The thing about lying is, if you do it once, people may still take you seriously. Do it twice and the next time, no one is going to be a round.

Every single one of our enemy channels has been caught fabricating everything more than once. Yet, we’re meant to take these idiots seriously???

Wallah i hope king 3aduallah’s son, al Hariri, gets the biggest kick in the head that it would send him right into the hands of the Shabiha. And he will suffer greatly for all he has done. Allah yel3anu. Yeb3atlo b atlo enshallah. Well, obviously he killed Hariri SR. His old man in Saudi must have paid him to do so. Or, he did it because of SRs money. Either way, the blood of that bastard is on Hariri jr.

How do concerned non-citizens open a Syrian bank account? Is that possible? There are many out there, not just Syrians, who are outraged by the latest NATO-NWO illegal attack on another sovereign nation and would like to see it foiled.

Certainly Syria has pulled all funds out of western and GCC banks already? The Sayanim Traitors are trying to put together a bill to freeze their assets. Syria needs get their money out now.

How USA, that is weeks away from default itself, with a third of their crop land flooding, and several nuclear facilities melting down – one on the verge of plutonium detonation- has $$$ to micromanage serial coup d’etats across the world is questionable.
US could fall before Syria, but the UN/EU and other Tower of Babyl monarchs have agreed to prop up the corpse.

Hello retard. Your ilk (conspiracy deniers) are not really given any attention in the middle east where conspiracies are a daily observed occurrence. In fact, you can say that a human being cannot even live without committing conspiracies.

Such an argument is beyond your heavily rotted brain so I’ll make it really simple for you:

I’m not saying its true, I’m saying this is what I heard was said between Hariri and Bandar a month ago. Apparently Bandar is beginning to make good on his threat because he sunk a lot of money under his own name into this failed project.

I hope that didn’t go beyond your goldfish attention span.

#16

It’s not so much whether they have the money to do it, they do (they can print as much money as they need). The question is how long will people still perceive the USD to be worth what it is currently.

I guarantee that the answer is not for long. When this happens, they can say goodbye to their indirect attack plans.

I don’t know I thought that was the thing to do around here! Hearsay, garbage thought, sectarianism and zionist sympathy. In fact, isn’t that what the whole “Syria killed Hariri” garbage was based on? Conspiracy theories? Why the sudden protest, oh conveyor of conformist (i.e. retardedly shallow) thought?

My gut feeling is that Bandar is just blackmailing him, no doubt he can influence the kangaroo court to say whatever he wants. Don’t you find Hariri’s absence from both Lebanon and Saudi Arabia suspicious?

For those with a brain, read between the lines, it aligns perfectly with the leaked conversation Syria announced a month ago:

—

Al-akhbar daily (Lebanese secular and liberal) reports that the management of the Arab Bank have refused to confirm or deny reports that outgoing PM Sa’ad Hariri is selling part of his share in the bank to former PM, and Hariri aide, Fouad Saniora. The newspaper cites knowledgeable banking sources that this is true. It notes that Mr. Hariri, a billionaire, is facing liquidity problems after suffering heavy business losses, to the extent that he is facing some difficulty making loan payments in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Al-akhbar reports that his liquidity problems are affecting his relationships with “influential Saudis”, usually a code word for al-Saud princes.

It reports that his difficulties extend to his own family relationships and that it came to light after his sister Hind could not deposit three checks issued by him for US$ 150 million as payment of part of her share from their father’s estate. There were apparently insufficient funds to cash them. The reports claims his huge firm, Saudi Oger has suffered US$ 3 billion in losses and that many “influential Saudis” are angry at him.

Mr. Hariri got into serious trouble with the family of the de facto Saudi ruler, Prince Nayed the Interior Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, etc etc, after calling prince Mohammed, his son and deputy, a “bloodthirsty butcher”. He seems to have lost some of his magic to the Saudis, whose nationality he holds.

—

The plan in Syria failed and now the chickens have come home to roost.

No cloud seeding to stop flames, and 30,000 barrels of plutonium sitting above ground under cloth tents (for OVER A DECADE). Where is Babel’s IAEA??? MIA like Fukushima??
Wasnt it 4 particles of some atomic material that IAEA used to try to frame Syria for the zionist ‘nuke plant’ allegations? Those clowns are a joke.
Agenda 21 population reduction in full swing:

Los Alamos fire becoming state’s largest
Published: July 1, 2011 UPI

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. -The wildfire engulfing Los Alamos, N.M., mountains and canyons is defying belief in its destruction as it becomes the state’s largest ever, a fire chief said.

“We’re seeing fire behavior we’ve never seen down here, and it’s really aggressive,” Los Alamos County Fire Chief Douglas Tucker told reporters Thursday as the voracious inferno consumed 93,000 acres, or 145 square miles, on the once-volcanic Jemez Mountains, just west of Los Alamos and the secretive Los Alamos National Laboratory, the nation’s top nuclear weapons lab.

The Las Conchas blaze, which devoured more than 23,000 acres in 24 hours, was expected to plunder more than 1,000 additional acres early Friday, making it New Mexico’s biggest fire ever, out-consuming 2003’s Dry Lakes fire, which burned 94,000 acres, or 150 square miles, near the Gila National Forest in southern New Mexico.

Tucker said earlier hopes of lifting evacuations this weekend had been dashed.

The fire’s enormity, on top of other severe wildfires in recent years, is geologically extraordinary — “at least as severe and maybe more so than anything we’ve seen since the last Ice Age,” geologist Grant Meyer of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque told the Christian Science Monitor.

More lies from the media, courtesy of the ‘peaceful’ Syrian revolution and the ‘credible’ media agencies affiliated with them. It is just mind boggling how they continue to fabricate stories after being caught out time and time again.

That clip again proved the extreme level at which these morons will go to, in order to condemn the Syrian President and his soldiers. They can burn slowly in hell for their lies are greeted with naive and ignorant international co-conspirator support, again, who want to Syria dragged down. Lets hope that while these liers burn, they remember why, and thus they will see what their lies achieved for them.

Jack Avital believes in the future of Bashar Assad. “Everything is good,” he told the Algemeiner. “You can bet on it – Assad will be there another 20 years…He is not Mubarak, not Gaddafi– Assad is an honest guy and 95% of the population supports him and will protect him.”

Unexpected remarks, given the mainstream media’s recent coverage [My comment: not surprising at all, given he is a smart man and can see through their lies]. Avital says, however, that the economy is “working and moving.”Further, he says that the Jewish community is doing well, and that the Syrian president is protecting the minute Jewish community still in place in Damascus. In the last several months Syria has been seen in the west as a government in crisis, one willing to do anything – even kill its own people – to retain its power. Yet, according to Avital, who is in close contact with officers of the Syrian government both in American and in Damascus, Assad is protecting the ancient community and has protection in place at the community’s historic synagogue.

In the midst of the crisis, the Syrian government invited Yehoshua Pinto, a charismatic Israeli rabbi who spends about half of his time in New York, to visit. Jack Avital, head of the Sephardic National Alliance and a leader of the Syrian-Jewish community of North America, conveyed the invitation from the Syrian ambassador to the US, Imad Moustapha. (Pinto’s has roots in Damascus where members of his family were rabbis during the first half of the 17th century.

Avital, has maintained good relations with President Bashar Assad and with Syrian officials in the US. He has led delegations of American Jews to Syria for official visits in 2004 and 2006. The initial discussion of a Pinto visit initiated well before the current political crisis. Pinto and his party have been assured that security and logistic arrangements, including the import of kosher food, would be in place.

Soon after the initial shots were fired in April, Pimm Fox of Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance Midday spoke with Barton Biggs, co founder of the Traxis Fund, LP. Biggs had met with Assad in 2009 to discuss investment possibilities. Reforms and significant infrastructure construction – roads, power stations, etc – were discussed. Calling Assad “affable and charming,” Biggs said the Syrian president was advised by his sophisticated English Syrian father in law. Politically, Assad “didn’t take a negative or hard line view about what is going on with Israel.”

Little more than a year later he says “I’m very disappointed. Syria is a dynamic country of 22 million plus an additional 10 million of Syrian descent around the world” – an entrepreneurial people. Biggs believes the United States should maintain contact with Syria, and supports the current hands off approach. Unlike Avital, he says recent events make him feel regime change is necessary, especially in light of the long term inter tribal warfare.

While there are no sanctions preventing American investment – Syria’s 2010 financial position was strong, had little outstanding debt, and a public sector surplus. Yet, says Biggs, discussion of investment seems to have “just stopped, turned off… The government stopped responding entirely. “

Brian Davis, former Canadian Ambassador to Syria, calls the Syrian president “cautious, conservative,” one who “has slowly acquired the knowledge and skills of a President… an apple who has not fallen far from that tree. …. a decent, intelligent man ….who wants to be a popular president.”

He mirrors Avital’s analysis, saying Assad has “achieved considerable popularity on the “Arab street” across the region. This distinguishes him from President Mubarak.” Characteristically, Assad does not“act in haste or under threat. While the dissatisfaction among some elements is clear, Avital says “95% of the people support the regime.” In Daraa, anti government actions have been strident; in Damascus, home to most of the country’s Jewish population, “there are few disruptions.”

(article continues with some sectarian garbage I wish not to paste)

Amid the turmoil, the small community of Jews in Damascus has been encouraged to rebuild. Funds are coming from Syrian Jews; permission came from President Bashar al-Assad. Josh Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, says “This is an effort by the regime to show its seriousness and an olive branch to the Jewish community in America” – despite the ongoing state of war with Israel.

Albert Cameo, leader of the remnant community says he’s” trying to fulfill an obligation to his religious heritage.”At 70, he is the force behind the restoration of the Al-Raqi Synagogue in the old Jewish quarter of Damascus and says he has no desire to leave Syria. “Morally I can’t leave my country and the religious places of worship here,” Cameo said from his home in Damascus. “I have a duty to preserve our heritage.”

—

Is there anyone here in the US who has good contacts with the Syrian Jewish community who can give a more wide spectrum of opinions? Are they listening to the media back at home, or have most of them dropped Arabic as a language they would use, thus are stuck with the zioWest sewerstream media coverage?

We fight not just for our land and immediate future, but for our history as well. Syria’s Jews comprise some of our oldest houses. We will never let the hypocritical devil brotherhood take control of Syria, who want to expel/kill anyone who doesn’t practice their brand of religion while simultaneously making peace with the zionist entity.

I agree that there is some hyperventilating in this report. Doubtful that a reporter has access to the sort of military intelligence assumed in this report. Gossip about Manaf Tlass is probably as reliable as was gossip in the past about coups by various members of the family, etc. This is probably a reporter going with a lot of opposition spin.

On the other hand, it reflects what Western governments are receiving. It reflects what opposition leaders are thinking.

I still don’t know what the opposition strategy is. According to this article, opposition leaders believe that if they can get all of Syria to demonstrate together, they can overwhelm the military and take over state offices and the country.

This seems a rather dreamy plan. Much of Syria fears revolution. Much of Syria remains loyal to this government, despite its shortcomings.

The military is loyal. The government is not very ideological and has shown the ability to change course and experiment. During the first weeks, it was clearly pushed back on its heels, but it has taken the measure of the opposition in the last few months and is experimenting with methods to counter it.

The government has clearly not figured out how to counter the demonstrations, but it has countered efforts by the opposition elements to arm and develop a military option. The public does not seem ready for armed insurrection and swung toward the government when the opposition seemed to be becoming more militant. Syrians do not want foreign intervention. This limits the options of the opposition.

I am not sure where this leaves the balance of power, but it is not as skewed to the opposition’s side as this report suggests. That is my best estimate.

it is interesting that AL Jazeera is talking about hundreds of thousands protesters while BBC is talking about thousands ,
i feel sorry for the protesters that are taking chances for the benefit of the leaders .

Aljazeera have constantly inflated the numbers in the protests. There are also some rallies in support of president Bashar Assad around Syria today that Aljazeera, in true form are reporting as anti Bashar protests.

In response to 3ar3our’s calls for Aleppo to rise against the government today, the people of Aleppo are also hosting a pro Assad rally and have basically advised him what he can do with his unwanted calls.

Syrian Commando,

Thanks for the link to the article, I dont think it has featured here before. I also find Susan D has a balanced view and her writings are worth reading.

The days when an Arab president in a republic stays in power for 30 years are gone,Bashar will not be president much longer after the promised reform is enacted, and he will depart even sooner if those reform promises do not materialize. I personally believe Bashar means well but he is part of a regime that needs to go,Syrians deserve a better government. The challenge is to replace the current regime with a secular democracy instead of a Taliban-like theocracy or a Harriri style “dollacracy”. I am certain that this challenge is the real test for Syria today.

I did have a conversation yesterday with members of my family who just left Syria for a few days and we were able to talk about the situation.

Troops do not always have food to supply them: true

Troops in some cities are exhausted and cannot keep up: true

Troops have defected or deserted and gone home: true

The Syrian pound is now at 55 for the dollar: true

The reliability of the troops is open to debate. The compartmentalization of the security forces is a double edged sword as in the repression they seem to have differing strategies from one group to the other and without coordination which is the basis to protect the regime from a coup, but in this situation it is a disadvantage.

Now the refrain of a Zionist tainted article and what have you; this does not stand. Rami wrote an op-ed in the NYT stating the importance of the regime for Israel’s and the region’s stability. Second, Israel would rather have the Assad regime as the border on the Golan has remained quiet since 1973. What more can they ask for. As for the Syrian’s support of the Palestinians all know the cynical nature of the support. The one support that counts is for HA the real danger to Israel but even that has been neutralized by internal Lebanese dissent and by a very quiet border in South Lebanon since 2006.

I believe that the Rats and Germs of the world are multiplying.
Wow to Bashar and Muammar.

“Such is France’s despondency that its people face “burnout”, said the national ombudsman recently; previously, he had described the nation as “psychologically exhausted”. It is a sign of French disgruntlement that the publishing sensation of the past six months has been “Indignez-vous!” (“Time for Outrage!”), a pamphlet by a 93-year-old urging his fellow countrymen to revolt. Indeed, the French currently rank among the world’s most pessimistic.”http://www.economist.com/node/18584584

You got it. The “93-year-old urging his fellow countrymen to revolt” is…… Stephane Hessel. Nowhere mentioned in the article. Maybe soon the Economist will write that people should be euthanized after 80?

We won’t believe a word of what you said, sorry. This is such tired propoganda. Your side has lost, have some dignity. At least speak about what reforms you want to see happen. You won’t get your revolution or foreign intervention.

Syrian commando,is not a common jew ,Jack Avital is a likudist figure in the USA ,an extremist zionist friend of both jahesh-halouf and Netanyahou.
Jack Avital hopes that al jahesh junior stays in power until death,and he is right ,there is no better for the zionist interests than them.

After the talks, Juppe told a joint press conference that the situation in Syria was a threat to the regional stability and that the U.N. Security Council should pass a resolution on the issue. However, Lavrov reiterated that Moscow would not support the Security Council in passing such a measure.

“The U.N. Security Council cannot remain silent on the situation in Syria. It must demand the immediate stop of hostilities and the launch of effective reforms (in the country),” Juppe said.

In turn, Lavrov reiterated that there has been no need to adopt a Security Council resolution on Syria.

“Our president has spoken about this on many occasions. This position remains in force,” Lavrov said. He also said that Moscow was still ready to find common ground with “our partners and with the international community” on Syria.

Meanwhile, Lavrov expressed support for the Syria president and said the refusal by the Syrian opposition to hold a dialogue with the country’s leaders is “unacceptable.”

“If the opposition is truly interested in reforms in the Syrian society and state, then it is simply unacceptable to skate out of such proposals (of holding dialogue),” Lavrov said.

Since mid-March, Syria has witnessed massive protests across the country. Germany and France have said they would continue efforts to push a Security Council resolution on Syria. Russia, meanwhile, has said it may veto the resolution.
Editor: Yang Lina

The US is pushing the Syrian opposition to maintain dialogue with Bashar al-Assad’s regime as details emerge of a controversial “roadmap” for reforms that would leave him in power for now despite demands for his overthrow during the country’s bloody three-month uprising, the Guardian reported on its website on Thursday.

Syrian opposition sources say US state department officials have been discreetly encouraging discussion of the unpublished draft document, which circulated at an unprecedented opposition conference held on Monday in Damascus. But Washington denies backing it, the Guardian’s report said.

Assad would oversee what the roadmap calls “a secure and peaceful transition to civil democracy”. It calls for tighter control over the security forces, the disbanding of “shabiha” gangs accused of atrocities, the legal right to peaceful demonstrations, extensive media freedoms, and the appointment of a transitional assembly.

The carefully phrased 3,000-word document demands a “clear and frank apology” and accountability for organisations and individuals who “failed to accommodate legitimate protests”, and compensation for the families of victims. The opposition says 1,400 people have been killed since mid-March. The government says 500 members of the security forces have died.

It calls for the ruling Ba’ath party to be subject to a new law on political parties – though the party would still provide 30 of 100 members for a proposed transitional national assembly. Seventy others would be appointed by the president in consultation with opposition nominees.

Several of the proposed measures have already been mentioned in public by Assad, fuelling speculation that he is at least partially following through on some of the document’s recommendations.

His account of atrocities against civilians, including killing and looting brings back the dark memories of 7ama massacre.

Here is an excerpt interpretation of his statement:
– Seargent in Special forces
– Provided Military ID, Metal Plate and Unit number
– Diplomate of Law, University of Aleppo
– Function: Correspondance officer
– I have full knowledge and documents implicating the unit in crimes against humanity
– I personally witnessed such atrocities commited in Baniyas and Talbeeseh and Rastan of Homs Governorate.
– He Saluted
1. The unit of Free Officers and The Syrian people.
2. Those who helped the Syrian people including human rights organisations and media
3. Saluted the Good Syrian Army personel; He asked them to stop watching and start helping civilians.
– He accused several Army personel of committing murder and looting. He said: I tell them I have your names, the names of the buusinesses that you looted, and the names of the people that you killed
– He cited the following names, with sample of their atrocities
1. Colonel Khidhr Sale7 7ammad: broke locks of businesses and their safes and stole money
2. Officer 7usein 7wayja: Looted lots of money: I saw 3KG of glod in his car.
3. Colonel Maher Suleiman: Shot and killed soldier to implicate demonstrators with armed insurrection.
4. Colonel majed Darbooli
5. Colonel Ali Kreidi: left wounded civilians bleed to take care of looting
6. Colonel samer Al 3ali: tortured civilians
7. Officers Thieves; Tammam Muhammad and Iyad Salloom: They looted Ghazal group company offices in baniyas
8. Colonel fares barakat: looted houses behind port authority Building, in Baniyas
9. Seargent Sinan hadba: Tortured civilians
10. Elyas Mu3awwadh
11. Officer Shadi AlSube7: He shot and killed 12 civilians participating in a funeral in Talbeeseh, Homs. He also shot and killed a soldier from AlBukamal when he interfered with his attempt to kill morners. The latter was wrapped in aflag, delivered to his family anfd told them that he was killed by infiltrators.
– I thank Free Syrian Youth Movement, for appointing me as their representative.
– He read a message to the honourables of Tayy tribe, who have chosen me as their representative: We are the true representatives of tayy tribe. We shall not be slave to B Asad. He warned pro-regime members of applying tribal common laws and civil laws should they commit crimes.
– He saluted the tribe of Sammar
– He warned informants and Baathis to reverse course or else.

Dear moderator,
I am a regular reader of this blog for the helpful insights both in the posts and in the comments.
Lately the comment section is flooded by abusive and irrelevant comments, I’d like to bring to your attention for example the comment #28 by SAMARA:
“You are a moron, an idiot, an ass, an ass hole, an ass wipe, and an ass sniffer. So, go sniff some more MB butt, maybe that’s how you get your IQ points.” I really don’t see what such a comment adds to the conversation, not to mention ALL comments by SYRIAN COMMANDO.
Also a technical note: comment numbers seem to change (comments inserted and/or deleted) which makes it difficult at times to find the correct comment a commenter is referencing, can this be resolved somehow?
Thank you for your efforts and for this valuable “forum”

Nope, he likes Bashaar for his anti-bigotry anti-sexism policy. Who doesn’t. Bashaar called upon your Saudi puppet states (zioWhabbi) allies to attack the zionist entity alongside Syria and Lebanon and 2006 and all of them refused. You’re a joke if you think Basha’ar is protecting the zionist entity.

The economist does not have its writers sign their names. This is their long standing policy.

This is how they explain their process:

“Why is it anonymous? Many hands write The Economist, but it speaks with a collective voice. Leaders are discussed, often disputed, each week in meetings that are open to all members of the editorial staff. Journalists often co-operate on articles. And some articles are heavily edited. The main reason for anonymity, however, is a belief that what is written is more important than who writes it. As Geoffrey Crowther, editor from 1938 to 1956, put it, anonymity keeps the editor “not the master but the servant of something far greater than himself. You can call that ancestor-worship if you wish, but it gives to the paper an astonishing momentum of thought and principle.”

I find it funny when people claim to speak to family members and friends only to confirm statements they’ve always made and affirm positions they’ve always taken. For example one person would say “I spoke to my cousins in Damascus and they confirmed that the 4th Division entered Deraa.” As if someone in Damascus would know first hand what Army Division entered what city. Another example is a friend of mine who said “my friend just came back from Syria and she confirmed to me that Assef and Maher are in control and Bashar has been placed under house arrest.” Because you would be privy to the inner happenings of the regime just by virtue of existing in Syria. And I know what Obama told Hillary last week in their secret meeting because I live in the US.

Well, that’s their choice, but for me it would make any of their writing suspicious and unreliable as I believe writers are heavily influenced by their political and religious beliefs.
No one else than a Jewish Zionist like Judith Miller from the NYT could have mislead a whole generation of Americans to believe that Iraq had WMD.

I have noticed that AFP is often skipping the name of the reporter. I guess some of them have shown to be biased.

ALEPPO, (SANA) – Small groups of people gathered in some neighborhoods of Aleppo province, filmed themselves and dispersed immediately.

A number of saboteurs attacked several shops in Bab al-Hadid neighborhood, destroyed some private properties and spread chaos.

One of Bab al-Nasr inhabitants Jihad Ajooz told the Syrian TV Correspondent that around 20 strangers attacked shops to steal them after closing the road with a bus from Idleb. They had weapons and started yelling to terrify people.

He added that the saboteurs attacked his shop and stabbed his neighbor in his back and tried to pull out his eyes, noting the absence of any security member in the neighborhood so the shop owners had to separate the saboteurs.

Ajooz said “one of the saboteurs was filming his fellows chanting with a developed mobile as if they were in a mass demonstration.

One of the shop owners was beaten with sharp instruments and sticks and thrown unconscious on the ground before we took him to the hospital, another trader said.

In the hospital, the doctor said that a number of injured people were hospitalized at 3:30 pm. The injuries resulted from sharp instruments in addition to some contusions.

The saboteurs were so aggressive and they ordered us to close our shop threatening us with iron bars. When they failed in arousing our anger, they started destroying the shops, another shop owner said.

He added that they took banners out of bags and filmed themselves to send the video to al-Jazeera TV.

The inhabitants said that al-Jazeera broadcast some news on demonstrations in Bab al-Nasr and Dawar al-Sabe Bahrat in Aleppo a while before the attack of these saboteurs.

In Bab al-Nasr neighborhood, 7 young men tried to start a demonstration. When the shops owners dispersed them, they attacked them with sharp instruments which resulted in the injury of one person in critical condition.

They also attacked another young man and hit him on his foot with a chair.

Economist is the consummate Crown/Rothschild publication with its ‘assorted editors’ comprised of RIIA, Chatham House and LSE types with MI5-6 tossed in. Hard to get more Zio-establishment than that. At least FT backs up w/ facts, charts and graph data. The article’s parochial assessment of Syria is embarassing. Multimillion dollar balance sheet, unlimited staff and The Economist cant produce a better rag than this?? Boilerplate propaganda. Its become Fox News with some snob appeal. Fail.
Maybe these MSM outlets should stick to their sex scandals, viagara troop rapes and Gay Girl documentaries, pretentions notwithstanding.

Quoting from SANA is about as credible as quoting from…… sorry, i cant think of a proper analogy since SANA’s credibility (lack thereof) has no equals in its absurdity.

The back and forth banter is mind-numbing. Pro-Assad commenters cannot disagree (unless you live outside of Syria and have never visited) that Syria is poor (economically), the people are oppressed (no freedom of speech, assembly or will), and corruption and torture are wide-spread and endemic. If you disagree with the above statement then you are far from reality. ALL Syrians agree that the above points exist in Syria (in a disproportionate amount compared to all other nations), and MOST (except for the elite/security forces etc…) DONT believe that these factors are in place for “our protection” as the government says.

Buthaina Sha’ban took a note straight from the Zionist Doctrine on the Israeli excuse for murdering innocent Palestinians when she said that there is “collateral damage” when dealing with Syrian protesters. Al-Assad and Co. have been Israel’s greatest ally in the ME ensuring that not ONE STONE was thrown from Syria towards the Israeli enemy over the past 38 years until Al-Assad had the poor Palestinians and Syrians march towards the border to a certain death at the hands of Israeli soldiers.

Did the above protesters take to the streets because they were paid by Hariri? Were they brainwashed by the “pills” that AL Jazeera is distributing? Were they threatened by the “thousands” of Salafi gunmen that mysteriously appeared out of nowhere and managed to infiltrate every town across Syria? Was the protest organized by the legions of “gays” suddenly roaming the country?

Or did the above protesters take to the street to demand an end to oppression, corruption and torture? Did they take to the streets to demand to be treated like human beings and exert their God-given rights to live in peace and dignity? Could they possibly still have remembered the 10,000 – 48,000 (take your pick) family members composed of men, women and children murdered in cold blood by the Syrian Army in 1982 in their city?

We all have a right to peace and dignity. Without dignity you cannot have peace, and the Syrian Government has shown us no dignity for as long as i have lived. This is why the regimes days/months/years are numbered.

History always repeats itself. Always.

I wish all participants on this blog peace and love and inshallah Al-Assad & Co. leave soon so the bloodshed can stop.

It is Lavrov’s job to present the official Russian policy. I was aware of the articles you are citing (#42 & #44). It is perilously naive to think that Russian foreign policy is public and unidimentional. The Russians have inherited the habit of the Soviets (and Czars before them) to always have at least a two-track foreign policy, the official propaganda line and the more pragmatic backchannel one. Unlike the US, their “quiet diplomacy” really stays quiet! They are not stupid, their analysis also shows that time is up with Assad — at this stage the genie cannot be put back in the bottle. Everybody wants a “soft landing” for Syria, especially the Russians (the French not so much!), hence their quiet support of the roadmap document now floating around. This does not mean it will be accepted by the broader opposition and the Russians know that also. Hence their policy to edge their bet by supporting both sides, one track being the official line by Lavrov supporting Assad, the other track quietly establishing feelers with the opposition and supporting other means to “encourage” Assad’s exit .

Murat
I totally disagree with you and unless you are an x-KGB I don’t know what are your sources who are giving you wrong information.

Russia has consistently supported Bashar Al Assad who is the only consistent anti-US arab country. They know that the x-opposition is mostly located in the USA and funded by the CIA who want a return of the US in the region to prevent the Russian naval bases in Tartous and eliminate Russia from the Middle east once for all.
The Russians are quiet , yes, and they work to recuperate their influence in the ME by a balanced policy. Bashar al Assad is their guarantee and they will support him unless the army turns against and we know this is not happening
France is going from misteps to misteps in the ME. I think they are loosing any influence they had.

“I totally disagree with you and unless you are an x-KGB I don’t know what are your sources who are giving you wrong information.”

🙂

“Russia has consistently supported Bashar Al Assad who is the only consistent anti-US arab country.”

True.

“They know that the x-opposition is mostly located in the USA and funded by the CIA who want a return of the US in the region to prevent the Russian naval bases in Tartous and eliminate Russia from the Middle east once for all.”

True, that’s precisely why they want to prevent a US-dominated opposition and are developing their own feelers to, and agents within, the opposition.

“The Russians are quiet , yes, and they work to recuperate their influence in the ME by a balanced policy. Bashar al Assad is their guarantee”

True, he was before but not any more. They know Assad is spent.

“and they will support him unless the army turns against and we know this is not happening”

It time it will (unless a soft landing can work out) and the Russians also know that, hence the two-track strategy they have in place.

Few points:
1.aljazeera’s coverage of Syria is not news-like,it is getting ugly and personal. I still look at their site and watch some programs but they lost my trust.
2.opposition to Bashar is not as limited as pro regime people say but it is not as widespread as anti regime people claim either.
3. Removing Bashar,Mubarak -style, will lead to chaos ,and trying the Libyan method is a sure way to ignite a civil war.
4.time for the opposition to make a united front with specific demands and start a dialogue. Jews and Arabs can negotiate but not syrians and Syrians?
5. Harriri report timing spontaneous? Ya right
6. Lira may get as low as 60 for $ and lower, this is one reason why syrians need to talk to each other.
7. French government is a group of lunatics, watch and laugh.
كانت هذه هي السبعه

@ Why-Discuss #50: I assume you know the 200,000 number for Hama today is a gross exaggeration, as can be seen in videos of it at Youtube (including this one (warning: terribly high volume audio)). The Opposition crowd thinks that perceptions are as important as reality. They think that if they can get perceptions tilted in their favour, though the perceptions aren’t correct, it can cause reality to subsequently tilt in the same direction. That might have happened during the liftoff in Egypt (or might not), but I don’t believe it works in Syria, and I believe it backfires on them, and will be backfiring more to come. They’ve created a situation where they’ve got no credibility in discerning eyes. Also the Syrian State media is high quality and reliable as a corrective. It doesn’t pretend to present anything other than one side to a story, but it presents that side with integrity and care for truth. I’ve essentially quit reading everything from “activists” because they’re so terribly unscrupulous about truth.

News Headline 1 July 2011: “Huge protests grip Syria; 12 killed in clashes”
Start of first paragraph of news: “Syrian activists say….”
That’s enough, I can stop reading it right there. But I’ll jump to take a quick peek at the second paragraph just in case. Start of second paragraph: “The London-based director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said….” That organization has got zero credibility for anybody who’s being following news coming out of Syria. So the rest of the newspaper’s report can be discarded as not worth even a peek.

Hama witnessed a large demonstration Friday and nobody fired on the crowd. Any destruction in Hama on Friday,and I hope there is none, will hurt the opposition. Keep it peaceful.Munzer khaddam on aljazeera was reasonable today.Time for a bald move by Bashar,enough of the cosmetic surgeries.

On a beach on Tartous coast, a youth group organized a rally called “Syria is Fine“. The organizer of the rally, Mohammad Derbas, said he wanted to stress that Syria passed the crisis through the awareness of its people and their convergence around supporting the President to achieve the announced reforms.

Scores of thousands took to the streets in Banias and the neighboring villages in a mass rally, voicing support to the comprehensive reform program. Chairman of Banias city council Samir Dayyoub said the rally is the true face of Banias, which proves that the people in the city fully embrace the comprehensive reform program launched by the President. The participants expressed joy over the return of security and stability to the city thanks to the Syrian Arab Army. Preacher of Beit Jnad Mosque in Banias Khaled Imam said the mass gathering of the people of Banias is an expression of popular support to the reform process.

Al-Qamishli province witnessed a spontaneous march of more than 200 cars in support of homeland and its leader. SANA correspondent in Qamishli said citizens chanted in favor of Syria, the army and the leadership as well as the comprehensive reform process.

Residents in some neighborhoods in Aleppo spontaneously went out to the streets on Friday to express their support to the national reform program. The outpouring was stimulated by false news on some TV channels that anti-regime protests were taking place in their neighborhood. Similar demonstrations happened in the same neighborhoods on Thursday.

The economist article says in the headline that if the Assad regime were overthrown, “a better government would emerge”, but the body of the article has nothing to support that. SC #1 says it’s an “hilariously conceived title”. NOUR thinks it’s hilarious too. I take a humorless view of the title and of the whole article. It’s a piece of shіt.

Joshua says about it: “This is probably a reporter going with a lot of opposition spin. On the other hand, it reflects what Western governments are receiving. It reflects what opposition leaders are thinking.”

The Western governments are extraneous and immaterial. The Syria scene will be a lot different in one and two years time. Details about what Western governments might be thinking today are of no consequence and should be of no interest. A possible value of this piece of shіt is that it can be interpreted as information about what opposition “leaders” are thinking.

“The protesters want what everyone in the Arab spring wants: elections, freedom of speech and assembly, protected status for minorities, an end to the regime’s repression…. One possibility is that the regime might change course and try to reform. It has made a number of promises to protesters, such as new laws on political parties, elections in August and a reduction of the privileged status of the ruling Baath party. It has called a “national dialogue summit” for mid-July to talk about these. But such promises sound insincere.”

On the pro-regime side, there has been a great outpouring of support for the proposed reforms. We haven’t seen the proposed media reforms yet, but I expect them to be good and liberal, since the bulk of the population has showed itself eminently sensible in the face of huge amounts of rubbish on Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, Al-Ahram, Youtube, The Economist, and almost everywhere on the planet outside the State controlled media. It goes to show that the Syrian State doesn’t need to censor political speech (rubbish or not) because the good people of Syria are not stupid and do have discernment. Also it’s not possible to censor any more in the Internet Age which is arriving in Syria. Anyway, when the regime implements the reforms, there’s going to be a free and fair election contest (religous and tribal parties banned) and the opposition is going to have to compete against the regime in the contest. If the opposition parties win, that’s that, and that’s fair. The pro-regime side now has good grounds to believe that the regime will win by a comfortable margin. One of the many reasons for confidence can be noticed in the Economist article: it has nothing about how the opposition would be a better government, except for the very obviously rubbish idea that the regime’s reforms promises sound insincere.

ABUGHASSAN # 67 and #69 says it’s “time for the opposition to make a united front with specific demands and start a dialogue with the regime” and also “time for a bald [bold] move by Bashar, enough of the cosmetic surgeries.”

Question for Abughassan: What demands do you have? Do you not realize the regime is going to do full-fledged modernization of parties and elections (and media coming up on 24th july), and that the regime’s supporters are out cheering about it on the streets?

I read most of what is being proposed and I am OK with a lot of what is in it,however,we need that magic word: article-8 is abolished,and the release of every syrian who was arrested for his opinion and committed no crime otherwise(since saying NO was a crime in Syria).what syrians want is substance and real measures that can calm the streets and give hope that those who hurt others will not get away with their evil deeds,I am against revenge but I am also against pretending that security forces and officials are immune from the rule of the law. A number of security chiefs must be sent to court,Maher must be excused from any official role in Syria,and independent figures should enter the government.why is that too hard to understand?

Is this the 2011 MAWWAL? “Do you not realize regime is going to do full-fledged modernization of parties and elections”

Demands:

1. An immediate ending of the atrocities by the government.
2. All apprehended protesters should be freed immediately.
3. Every ranking and non-ranking personnel that ordered or took orders, to kill, torture and humiliate, physically or verbally must be brought to justice, first. Families who lost loved ones must get a written apology and a compensation.
4. Protesters have every right to chant.
5. All tanks must be pointing outward, not toward civilians.

It is reform and not modernization these protesters are demanding.
The human cost have been very high, over a thousand dead, and thousands had fled the country, and thousands tortured.

The price tag is much higher now. what do you think ya mawwal? doable?

One has to admit that Syria is still a third world country. Expecting syrian security forces to behave like the Swiss police is a mere fantasy,however,it is time to reform security forces and bring the outlaws to justice. I am not one of those who blame the head of the regime,Bashar,for every illegal or unethical act committed by security forces but I want him to show more leadership and more determination. very little is done so far to respond to the violence practiced by regime forces and we have not heard the conclusion of the “investigations” regarding those acts. Syrians will assume that their government is a full partner in the kiiling and torture if nobody is arrested and sent to jail.

NZ
And in return MB will:
1-stop all criminal activities
2-give up weapons especially the weapons stolen from army
3-surrender all criminals involved directly or indirectly in killing of any Syrian soldiers or civilians
4-surrender there military leadership responsible directly for killing hundreds of syrians,and compensating there families from any assets MB has
5-compensating all syrians for damages caused to there government buildings or there private properties by MB gangs
6-MB stopping all conspiracies and alignment with Forign countries and enemies
7-MB to agree to dissolve into nonereligious party .

Please look at the riots in Greece, 5,000 policemen equipped with helmet, shield, jeeps, sun bombs, gaz bombs, water hoses … It costs a fortune.
Look at the Syrian police, no helmet, not shields, no bulletproof vests ( each one costs 600 euros), just their gun. So what do you expect?
Greece and France have riots every now and then and their police are trained, when is the last riot in Syria, 40 years ago?
What can be expected…

I am not trying to apologize for violent protestors who must not complain if their violence is met with violence,I was referring to the unnecessary use of live bullets against unarmed civilians . Some here will deny that it ever happened and some will say that all victims were non violent and unarmed,both are wrong. We need to value life and understand that violence never solved any political problem,only dialogue and compromise could.

>They think that if they can get perceptions tilted in their favour, though the perceptions aren’t correct, it can cause reality to subsequently tilt in the same direction.

Well said Mawal, you are Syrian right?

>Also the Syrian State media is high quality and reliable as a corrective. It doesn’t pretend to present anything other than one side to a story, but it presents that side with integrity and care for truth. I’ve essentially quit reading everything from “activists” because they’re so terribly unscrupulous about truth.

Exactly and right now, due to the activists continual lying, we’re left dependent on the Syrian media only. Funnily enough, our enemy is also dependent on the Syrian media.

I don’t think Al khanzeera should be allowed back in Syria. I think the headquarters in Doha should be attacked with missiles.

In this December 2010 Wikileaked cable from the US Embassy in Cairo to the US State Department, an unnamed activist who was part of the April 6, 2008 Egyptian Youth Movement says that the government of Egypt “will never undertake significant reform, and therefore, Egyptians need to replace the current regime with a parliamentary democracy. He alleged that several opposition parties and movements have accepted an unwritten plan for democratic transition by 2011; we are doubtful of this claim.”

The activist said that “several opposition forces — including the Wafd, Nasserite, Karama and Tagammu parties, and the Muslim Brotherhood, Kifaya, and Revolutionary Socialist movements — have agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011 presidential elections.” He said that the “opposition is interested in receiving support from the army and the police for a transitional government prior to the 2011 elections” and that “this plan is so sensitive it cannot be written down.”

The activist said he tried to convince those US officials with whom he met in December– Reps. Edward Ed Royce, R-Calif., Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, and Rep. Wolf, R-Virginia, two Senate staffers, and several think tank members that the US government should pressure the government of Egypt (GOE) “to implement significant reforms by threatening to reveal information about GOE officials’ alleged ‘illegal’ off-shore bank accounts.”

He “asserted that Mubarak derives his legitimacy from U.S. support, and therefore charged the U.S. with ‘being responsible’ for Mubarak’s ‘crimes.’ He accused NGOs working on political and economic reform of living in a ‘fantasy world,’ and not recognizing that Mubarak – ‘the head of the snake’ — must step aside to enable democracy to take root.”

At the December 3-5, 2008 “Alliance of Youth Movements Summit” in New York, the activist outlined “his movement’s goals for democratic change in Egypt.” Upon returning to Cairo Airport on December 18, the Egyptian government’s State Security Investigations Sector “found and confiscated two documents in his luggage: notes for his presentation at the summit that described April 6’s demands for democratic transition in Egypt, and a schedule of his Capitol Hill meetings.”

MINA,
Its all on the road to the One World Gov. Big Oil Co exec told in 2008 how they planned to destabilize and gut the M.E. for it to be completely ‘renovated’ as the West desired, starting with the downfall of Dubai. Most of us just figured it would all be financial stuff like sanctions, dropping oil prices to impoverish the OPEC nations (which they did do and is ongoing) but didnt realize there would be so many willing stooges inside each nation to help out. Predictably, if you starve people (which was part of plan) you can then exploit the resultant frustration. Esp if it is augmented by decades of oppressive regime behaviour. All thats needed is an apparatus to come in and reap Moriah’s whirlwind as they say. In many ways, they prefected the strategy in Palestine and are working off that model.

Washington will resume limited contact with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said yesterday. The move is likely to upset Israel and its US supporters who have deep misgivings about the Brotherhood, a group that promotes its conservative vision of Islam in society.
Under Hosni Mubarak, the Brotherhood was banned. But since he was ousted in February, the Islamists have been seen as a major force.

Martyr Ms Noora AlFaisal, mother of three, shot by a sniper in the head, died minutes after taking this video clip.
Jooret AlShayya7, 7oms, yesterday.
AlFati7a upon her soul,
May God bless her family with solace and empower them with patience.

Noora and her three bereft children have joined Jr and Aunty’s list of collateral damage.

The “Economic Supervisory Board” have informed the higher authorities that available Reserves of Syrian currency may last for only 70 days.
That has been due to large withdrawals that hav amounted to 70% of annual budget.

It’s Reuters/AFP/AP. All three have shown themselves to be completely unreliable.

I don’t think any of them expected this to go on for this long and didn’t weigh in the long-term credibility damage they will suffer as a result. Of course, this only counts for middle east viewers, westerners will not know any better. In this sense, Al khanzeera, Al Hibreeya are the big victims.

their peacfulness is adorable! They are soo cute! I think i even saw a few toy guns there, with fake bullets and pre-recorded gun shots off a tv show. At least thats what Al Hakeera and their likes woukd say.

How the Syrian Army managed to defeat thousands of armed infiltrators in Baniyas, and fool the best marine unit in NATO

By: Taleb Ibraheem AL SAHHAF

The Syrian army boasts the most efficient, smartest and best planning officers in the world.
I have tens of indicators that prove that; Talkalakh, Baniyas, and Jisr Alshughoor are just a few. Here are two :

First; Jisr AlShughoor:
– Until now the world have not been able to understand how the Syrian army was able to encircle thousands of armed infioltrators and loosing only one soldier and not even a single civilian! That was an act of military genius!

Second; Baniyas:
– A German military vessel, off the Syrian coast, commanded thousands of infiltrators by telecommunication equipment
– Our officers intercepted the communications and readily understood it, for it was in German. The Germans did not know that our officers speak German and actually several foreign languages!
– The ship’s signals, the best of its kind in NATO, were blocked by our army.
– The Syrian army officers then established communications with the infiltrators in German language. The infiltrators were consequently fooled and lead unknowingly right to army units where they were caught.
–
قائمة العار السورية | سوريون ضد الثورة
اضحك مع الطبل طالب ابراهيم ..

I have tried from the beginning to stay away from name-calling and personal attacks but I am really disturbed by the continuous flow of graphic videos and images of dead or dying people posted on this blog. This fascination with blood and death is sickening even when it is used to rally support for a cause or provide proof of a piece of news. It is nauseating to see Syrian blood being spilled in the streets and then filmed and broadcasted for political gains. Third world countries are ruled by third world regimes and occupied by third world citizens. Most of us are trying to get out of this “third world” hole but violence and politicized religion will pull us back in,denounce both and let people live…

When a volgar language is used to insult someone, you only remember who used it not who was insulted.

I think it is important to post these you tube clips. The whole world has access to them and if someone has a smart comment to expose them , let us hear it so we all know where the truth is.

Mina, thank you for your complement. No trap there. I think I try to be very clear in my “world view” and I am pretty honest about it. You ignored a past question of mine. Are you Buthina? I honestly think she has a graceful ” look” about her and I mean that. I just did not like her attitude (I heard about) when she came to the US several years ago and met with some Syrians. And no I don’t live in Chicago. Interesting answer. So Bashar married rich?

Why, nice come back. Pretty smart! I have no acess to my favorite Arabic channel here
in Spain. Can you give us a review of Syed Hassa speech whent it happens and my I pad is retarded. Thanks.

– Swiftly of a much larger pro-Assad demonstration ‘in a another area’ without a single interview.

The title is : Syria witnesses “massive” protests
Why is the word massive between quotes???
Is doubt creeping in Al Jazeera’s reporting about what is really going on or is it because the US and Russia are openly backing reforms UNDER the leadership of Bashar al Assad?

Since it seems like people are continuing discussions here, I am going to post here too.

Thanks for taking the time once again to explain, but there are weaknesses to your claims:

1) You’re saying you just do the odd job for friends and family, while before you said you accept the meager 0.1% commission to be competitive to achieve more volume. That does not sound like just doing the odd job. However, this is a personal issue and is not important to me.

2) If the USD is coming from government coffers, why would they need to be smuggled in truckloads from Lebanon (like you also claimed in an earlier post)?

3) Do you really think Syria is in any danger of getting too low on hard currency reserves? Assuming this government is so selfish and willing to do anything to stay in power, like what pro-revolution people like to say, can’t it just borrow hard currency, even if at inflated interest rates?

The regime’s worst nightmare from holding an incompletely controlled meeting were relaised in Al Sameeramees meeting.

An unexpected, embarressing barrage of accusations in a side press conference took every body by surprise, Including Jr and Aunty.

The following are Highlights of Lawyer Moosa Hanna Eesa statement in a casual press interview at AlSameeramis Meeting:
He said:
– Syrian media manipulated facts that involved crimes and humiliation against Syrian people.
– Wafeeq Nasrallah and Isam AlTakroori were paid big money to falsify the story of AlByda in Baniyas.
They are still acountable for their deception.

– I demand that current and past information ministers and Syrian TV director be held accountable for crimes of deception and wasting of public money.

– in reply to a question about the how things evolved he said:
First there was popular movement that was not followed by timely political solution.
Then came the security solution that lead to the current cycle of violence.
– In reply about armed infiltrators he said: I did not hear of armed movements.
There should have been timely media coverage of all government military operations. Telling stories days after they happen deprives them of credibility.

– Question: Was’nt the military and security solution a respose to armed infiltrators violence?

Answer: Military and security solution was applied from the get-go. This is a fact and you all know that!
Ms. B Shaaban said there shall not be bullet fired on demonstrators; next day 120 were shot and killed!

– Question: How about security officers who were killed?
Answer; Allah Yer7amhom. I demand that those who have been proven to be the perpetrators,whoever they are, be appropriately punished.

I visited a Jewish synagogue in Cordoba today. The guide said there are only 3 left in Spain. It was small because it was privately owned. The striking thing is, it was decorated by a Muslim decorator after the Christians reconquest Cordoba so you see a trace of the three world monotheistic religions in it. The guide told me there was some tension between Jews, christian, and Muslims then, but they tolerated each other overall during the Arab rule in Spain.

I am interested in knowing what is taught to Israeli school students about history. We were always told that during the rule of the Islamic empire, Jewish communities were well integrated, was not particularly persecuted, and actually flourished. Does the world get
taught the same version of history or history changes based on the location where it is taught?

Can anyone enlighten me please why Al -jazeera is so demonized by the regime supporters? Do you guys really really think it is a Zionist channel or it is just the usual rhetoric to serve a certain propaganda? And if so did Israel acuquire it before or after July war? I am so interested in hearing an intelligent answer.

REVLON is kind of operating like a broadcast service right now, flooding us with more videos than we can respond to in a reasonable time. I thought this was a discussion page, not the ponytail facebook page…

#125

… Come on, please. Please.

Have you actually seen how many times they’ve been caught lying in the last 20 hours, let alone the last 16 weeks?

Al Jazeera not only has relied on false information but has used an extreme warlike style to inflame common people against a ‘demonized’ ruler and waken up dormant sectarian feelings.
It has become a suspicious news channel to the eyes of Syrian government supporters. Trying to sneak in the iranian-american reporter was a very unprofessional and condamnable move.
Finally Ben Jeddo’s resignation had confirmed many of the suspicions that Al Jazeera had its own agenda and has put more doubts in the credibility of the channel.

They are now back in Syria ( aren’t you surprised?) and their reporting is gradually becoming more balanced. They stopped relying on the unverified video and eye witnesses.
I think that US and Russia’s firm position on Bashar al Assad (Clinton does not say anymore ‘if…., he should go’) as well as reforms announced and the local opposition move is triggering a shift and a softening of most international Media.

He pointed out that the Syrian leadership has actually revealed its ability of conducting dialogue and readiness for changes in the country, viewing what has been implemented and what the Syrian leadership has promised as very important.

“If the opposition really seeks reforms in the state, it couldn’t turn down the proposals in this regard, because simply this would raise suspicions that what they are talking about is not reforms but changing the regime…and we know what risks this could bring about. That’s why we’re working with all means so as for both sides to embark on dialogue,” said Russia’s Foreign Minister.

He added that Russia is ready to work along with its partners and the international community to formulate a unified stance in terms of turning the situation in Syria into the political track as soon as possible.

Lavrov cited the two recently issued general amnesty decrees, in addition to the proposals on changing elections law and the constitutional reform, which he considered as serious steps.

Thanks for you reply. If you think that book represents what is taught to school children in Israel then it is worth reading to get some insight of how the “others” think about us. I read few reviews on the link you provided and it seems that it is gearing more towards negative than positive , opposite to what we have learned in school.

I think that it is more important to know what others really think of you than your own interpretation of how the others think of you.

Al-Jazeera’s coverage is not becoming more balanced. I am disappointed that you’d make such a statement, and I am much more disappointed that they were allowed re-entry. I still can’t forget Cal Perry’s outright lies where he talked of massacres he saw with his own eyes, which never happened. If I ever see him in person, any time, any where, I will not hesitate to give him a swollen face.

To my surprise, many Arabs never heard of it yet it was an important event in framing the Arab-Jewish relations in Palestine. It was the major event that convinced most Jews that a bi-national state would not be feasible and it was the even that caused Jews to develop what would later become the IDF.

I thought investigative journalism is the way to go. What is really wrong trying to sneak in a reporter when a regime bans foreign media and reports coming of civilian massacres. What if this happened in Gaza? Wouldn’t we all be praising Aljazeera for it?

And could you please be more specific in regard to the sectarian thing. You mean Alquardawi? I agree it was inappropriate sectarian comment for a non-Syrian but did they continue to feature him on the channel?

I am not surprised at all that they are allowed back in. The regime is getting smarter by the second and it is no longer that retarded. They are trying to change the world view, first with the internal opposition meeting ( by invitation only, and we do not know who is inviting) and now by allowing outside media as long as it’s movement is drawn by the regime.

Yes it does…. revolutions, counter-revolutions, tyrants, bubbles, recessions, wars, peace …. ad nauseum. As long as civilization continues in its “pyramid” form, then the above (not in order) will continue in the same fashion as they always have (for the past 10,000 years or so)

I never compared SANA to the above, all mass media is manipulated by the elite (Rothschild not only controls the Economist, but Reuters and AP as well…to name a few), and SANA is no different except for the fact that its ‘tad’ more ridiculous than the rest. SANA has its rightful place in the pyramid. NWO-elitists may have a hand in the revolutions we are witnessing, however this does not warrant support (or apologies) for a murderous regime such as Al-Assad.

In all honesty, I welcome very much “important people” watching this place. Please feel free and welcomed. It is important to hear the truth not from your supporters but from your “no supporters”.

“important people” ,

Can you please tone down the public affection you display towards Bashar?. Please please LOVE Bashar quietly on your own. This does not happen in democratic countries. We do not appreciate that much public display of affection. We’re kind of conservative people. That is all!

Dear WD,
I agree with Usama on Aljazeer, they didn’t change their propaganda lies in the Arabic channel, and they should never let in again, even the report you linked is so biased and distorted, she was asking the same group of people and if you notice there is one bearded young guy in all of the interview standing next to whoever is speaking…they should throw them out of Syria.

#126, propaganda makeup machine,
If you want moving songs here you go couple that nobody linked on SC yet, I didn’t want to link them before out of respect to all of the Syrians we lost but since you are not stopping your propaganda nobrainer diarrhea comments I have no choice:

Non- supporters are MBs/ zionists. Tara is an American man. Jad, Nour, and Why are the same people. Why is Bashar or a significant other. Mina is Buthina. Homsi is Halabi. Halabi is Homsi. Revlon is Lebanese from Tripoli.. Aboud is an alian. Tara is kheder. Abouali is African American, Aljazeera is Israeli, and…, and…., and,…

This blog has always been followed by Middle East policy makers in the US government. This isn’t new. I understand though if that’s a little over your head since you don’t even seem to understand why al-Jazeera is “demonized” by us. Just unbelievable…

SC,

The Syrian government does understand the importance of the internet, but what the hell can they do? Look at how Syrian TV is standing up to the world’s seditious media. At the end of the day, it is the awareness of the average Syrian that keeps Syria united. I’m sure most of us here have illiterate grandparents, that never learned to read and write, and even they have always been aware of what the west do to people like us. When I was little, I remember my grandfather sometimes saying “if you see two fish in the middle of the sea fighting each other, know that the British are behind it”.

Our uneducated illiterate grandparents were more aware than most of us. Also, keeping internet access open is a sign of great strength and confidence.

I still think Al Jazeera will gradually flip to a more balanced reporting. It won’t happen in a day. They will following the trends of the international media. No more eye witnesses and amateur videos, that’s a good start.
The situation has changed. More and more peaceful demonstrations are happening. Why didn’t Al Jazeera show the “huge” peaceful demonstration in Hama? Because it is boring: Peaceful demonstrations don’t make headlines whatever ever inflated numbers are claimed by the organizers.

This brings me to the situation in Hama, what do you think?
It seems now totally peaceful and I really wonder where would these demonstrations with “bananas and juice” will lead them? Are they just getting a sense of victory and empowerment? or they got the illusion they will become the “Midan Al Tahrir” a symbol of the Syrian revolution. Do they accept the fact that as long as the large cities Damascus and Aleppo don’t follow, their call are in vain? Can they do anything to stimulate these cities to move? Don’t you think it may do the exact opposite, just because these large cities usually refuse to get lessons from a small city that has historically been associated with MB and moslem extremists.
I wonder how would they feel when the reforms will gradually roll and Bashar Al Assad will still be here despite they calls.
They are bound to feel a bitter disappointment soon, how would they react? politically or violently?

I think a meeting of non-Ikhwan (and other insane people) affiliated people from SC might be interesting.

I have a lot of issues to discuss myself, mostly from observing western and eastern systems. Instead of discussing this and moving forward though, the terrorist x-opposition keeps driving back conversation to the blood baths they are creating.

At the moment I fear the government a lot less than I fear the terrorist x-oppposition so I’d hold off revealing my qualifications etc., until they’re completely out of the picture.

#148

They’re already acting violently. No doubt the people in Damascus creating problems are from Hama, especially the masked ones.

The demonstrates I saw on CNN look like they’re all taking heroin, seriously even sitting at my computer desk I felt scared from them.

Bashar Assad should lead the next demonstration in Damascus, calling for the downfall of the regime as we know it and announce in front of the masses and on TV the plans he has for the future , enough wishywashy .he has to take the initiatives .

One of the more atonishing facts for me during the beginning of the revolt is that many syrians deny the right of analysis and opinion to foreigners, whatever is his envolvement in syrian affairs or its level of knowledge about it. It seems as if the syrian regime followers want to deny other foreigners what they have been doing in foreign countries like Irak, Lebanon, Palestine and even Jordan or Turkey.

WHY DISCUSS
Yes, how dare you show some independence and chirp a tune outside the flock.

You are demoted

SANDRO
Don’t mean to be picky, but the appropriate word is conspiratorating, which is the verb of conspiring inside the brain (if any is left) of the self precieved victim (maker up) as opposed to conspiring, which is the real thing.

So Aljazeera is conspiratorating against the poor eternal leader. You are also a part of that conspiratoration.

Greece’s Civil Protection Ministry said that the coast guard had been ordered to take “all appropriate measures” to bar Gaza-bound ships from leaving Greece’s ports.

Greece has recently expanded its relations with Israel, and the two countries are currently holding preliminary talks on potential energy deals. Greece’s cash-strapped government is also currently seeking additional sources of overseas investment, possibly including Israel, to offset its financial crisis.

In respond to Calls from outside Syria to destroy the internal Syrian economy ,Syrians from around the world are supporting the Syrian pound; we will transfer money to our families in Syria or simply open new bank accounts in Syria between: 1/07/2011 – 07/07/2011

exactly,i shared a link from alakhbar yesterday abbot Bashar forming a new political party,when you live in Syria you know that rumors are part of the policies to prepare people for new changes ,there is talks about huge reform to Al Baath or creating new party , anyway Al Baath dose comply with the new party law (it has military activities) the new party law would not be introduced in this form if there was no serious intention for real change.
the genuine opposition should take this opportunity and contribute in making Syria’s future .

There’s no such thing as anonymous when you’re posting on here, trust me. “But but, I’m behind 7 firewalls” etc., this place is being watched by “important” people.

>SANA is no different except for the fact that its ‘tad’ more ridiculous than the rest.

No, SANA presents a government point of view and never lies about the facts. It may twist things around, but there’s no fabrications going on.

Seriously, you’re a joke.”

Rambo,

We get it, you really really really really love Bashar.

So, SANA “never lies about the facts”…ever? never ever ever ever?…so where is the evidence (facts) of the thousands of hallucinogenic pills that Al Jazeera distributed to the “small numbers” of protesters? Where is the evidence (facts) of the ‘gays’ running rampant in Syria and instigating protests? Where is the evidence (facts) of “thousands” of Salafi’s appearing out of the woods and waiting for 40 years to “attack” us? Where is the evidence (facts) that the thousands of people fleeing to Turkey were just visiting relatives and their tears were ‘tears of joy’ as Reem Haddad said? ….. ‘SANA never lies’…hahahahahaha…cute ya too too.

Even the Syrain Gov’t couldnt stomach that last lie from Reem Haddad and sacked her. I’d like to nominate you for the new post of english-speaking information minister of Syria…oh wait, i cant nominate you because i have no right to vote, in-fact i dont have any right or any say in my own unelected government…hang on….neither do you.

If you are truly a supporter of Bashar Al Assad then you would UNQUESTIONABLY agree to the following:

– Rambo, would you kneel down to prostrate and kiss a picture of Bashar Al Assad on the floor?

– Rambo, would you kiss the feet of Bashar Al Assad if he demanded you to?

– Rambo, if Bashar asked you if he was God, would you say ‘yes’?

– Rambo, if Bashar demanded your daughter/sister kiss his hands and raise them to her forehead, would you “order” her to do so?

If you answered “NO” to any of the above, then alas ya Rambo…you are not a true supporter of Bashar Al Assad and his family and the one and only Baath Party.

So stop faking it khayo.

Just relax, if Bashar is gone then what difference does it make to you? Unless you or your family has directly benefited from the last 40 years of corruption and injustice you have nothing to be afraid of. Syria wont end up like Iraq, Iraq was invaded and divided by a foreign army. Syria wont descend into a sectarian civil war; as much as you want it to, Souri’s are smarter than that.

‘Syria wont end up like Iraq, Iraq was invaded and divided by a foreign army. Syria wont descend into a sectarian civil war; as much as you want it to, Souri’s are smarter than that’

do you or any other people here have a scenario as how Bashar will go if there is no foreign army? Do acknowledge that Bashar has much more supporters than what the media is showing?
do you agree that the ONLY man who has influence on the people who are still demonstrating is Al 3ar3oor? it’s a fact that this snake captured their sectarian minds therefore the sectarian civil war is a natural result if somehow ‘the regime was toppled’

Lets scrutinize the Talmud now to understand the khazar terrorists, like we’ve been pushed for years to scrutinize the Qoran “to understand ‘suicide bombers'”.

132. AIG said:
“Tara,
If you want to understand the basis of what Israelis are taught in school, the best place to start is with the Hebron Massacre of 1929.”

If you want to understand the basis of what Israelis are taught in school, home and synagogue, read on:

“You are human beings, but the nations of the world are not human beings but beasts.”- Baba Mecia 114,6

“On the House of the goy one looks as on the fold of cattle.”- Tosefta, Erubin VIII

“The estates of the goy are like wilderness, who first settles in them has a right to them.”- Baba Batra 54 b

“The property of the goys is like a thing without a master.”- Schulchan Aruch: Choszen Hamiszpat 156,5

Wonder why the international bankers feel entitled to swindle the world as they have? Keep this in mind when recalling Lloyd Blankfein’s quote “We are doing god’s will”:

“That all property of other nations belongs to the jewish nation, which consequently is entitled to seize upon it without any scruples. That an orthodox jew is not bound to observe principles of morality towards people of other nations, and on the contrary, he even ought to act against morality if it were profitable for himself or the jews in general.” –Schulchan Aruch, Choszen Hamiszpat 348

“How to interpret the word ‘robbery’. A goy is forbidden to steal, rob, or take women slaves from a goy or a jew, but a jew is not forbidden to do all this to a goy”–Tosefta, Aboda Zara VIII

“A jew may rob a goy, he may cheat him over a bill, which should not be preceived by him, [CDS or fraudulent mortgages anyone?] otherwise the name of God would become dishonored.” Schulchan Aruch, Choszen Hamiszpat 348

“Should a goy to whom a jew owed some money die without his heirs knowing about the debt, the jew is not bound to pay the debt.” –Schulchan Aruch, Choszen Hamiszpat, 238, 1

“A thing lost by a goy may not only be kept by the man who found it, but it is forbidden to give it back to him.”- Schulchan Aruch, Choszen Hamiszpat 266, 1

In case any doubt these words of the rabbis, this is for you:
“Jehovah himself in heaven studies the Talmud, standing: he has such respect for that book”–Tr. Mechilla

Those poor persecuted innocent jews, everybody forever picking on them because they are jealous of the Choszen.

‘Syria wont end up like Iraq, Iraq was invaded and divided by a foreign army. Syria wont descend into a sectarian civil war; as much as you want it to, Souri’s are smarter than that’

do you or any other people here have a scenario as how Bashar will go if there is no foreign army? Do acknowledge that Bashar has much more supporters than what the media is showing?
do you agree that the ONLY man who has influence on the people who are still demonstrating is Al 3ar3oor? it’s a fact that this snake captured their sectarian minds therefore the sectarian civil war is a natural result if somehow ‘the regime was toppled’

LOUAI:

Bashar has not brought us security or stability.

Security: Anyone can report on anyone for anything without proof and get blacklisted, arrested, tortured, murdered or disappear forever. If you dont agree with that then you dont know Syria. This is not security. This is fear.

Stability: Our economy (before the revolution) is not strong, in fact it is extremely weak and is heavily reliant on subsidies for which Bashar cant pay for (correction, HE can pay for, but the government he fleeces daily cant). The top 1% are filthy rich and the rest are poor or have to leave the country to find a decent job. This is not stability.

All those that benefited form Bashar through ill-means are supporters. Those that cant make money based on the current status-quo wont support Bashar anymore if he cant keep them wealthy. Bashar can raise rallies based on the above supporters and based on:

1. An absolute monopoly on ALL communications and media
2. Control on all movement of people and goods via all transportation methods and systems.
3. Utilization of the full resources of the government security forces to carry out any demand unquestioned. No matter how vile and heinous.
4. Utilizing the ridiculous amount of cash he has stolen from us over the past 40 years.
5. Ability to tax and charge us for all ‘services’ and use these proceeds for anything he wishes.
6. Request any and all government workers to follow all order.

Given the above factors, I would say the rallies and genuine support base would be much smaller if Bashar did not have all of the above at his disposal. The protesters in comparison have NONE of the above. They have hope, and that it.

To compare Bashar rallies and support to the Revolution rallies and support is not an apples to apples comparison given the above.

To say that the “ONLY” man to have influence is Al 3r 3oor shows you know very little or next to nothing about whats going on.

On who shall topple Bashar? Most probably it will come from someone within and close to him. Once that happens, then the people will still not accept Bashar’s ‘replacement’, however, once Bashar is toppled then it will become far easier to topple any of his relatives or loyalists since toppling Bashar is the hard part, anyone after him will be easy in comparison…… This cycle will happen until the people are happy with the replacement or implementation of a new system. In the interim phase Bashar loyalists will try and foment terror and chaos to undermine any new government. Eventually the people will prevail. When i mentioned in an earlier post that ‘history always repeats itself’ i meant it … the scenario above has happened over and over agin for thousands of years and in this case it wont be different.

RE: Sectarianism: Like i told Rambo, as much as you guys would love to start a sectarian war, it wont let it happen, cooler heads will prevail, your doomsday scenario wont play out.

Anonymous
You seem to be able to read the future so well.so did you know what happened in Iraq was going to happen?did you know that the cowards of MB were going to control Egypt and steel the youth revolution?did you know that Nidal Janoud was going to be cut into pieces by Sunni jihadist?why you did not tell that soldier in Hama that he was going to be hanged by peaceful Sunni jihadist?
Your knowledge of Syria’s future is like your name:Anonymous.

I never said i can read the future. All i said was that history always repeats itself. Tyrants come to power via deception and promises of ‘stability and prosperity’, then the usurp the peoples rights and become tyrants then are toppled by good people all the time and for thousands of years. Its all planned that way.

Get with the times habibity.

And please dont shed your crocodile tears for Nidal or anyone else. We all know who killed him and the tens of thousands of others over the past 40 years. Shame on you for showing fake sympathy.

I’m amazed how you and the rest of the Al-Assad clan could have ‘allowed’ the thousands of ‘Sunni jihadists’ to infiltrate Syria over the past 4 months, or were they 30 year old sleeper cells hiding in the woods??? I mean didn’t Hafez and Bashar promise us “Security and Stability”????…..if there are thousands of ‘Sunni jihadists’ in Syria and they are ‘beheading’ honorable army members and innocent civilians, then i’d say Bashar & Co. have failed at the “Security and Stability” they promised us and should resign immediately for their failure.

PS, your use of the term ‘Sunni Jihadists’ is taken straight from the US and Israel doctrine on vilifying all arabs and instigating sectarian rivalries and chaos in the Middle East. They must appreciate your help in perpetuating the lie that is the “Arab Terrorist”.

Your agitprop garbage is not convincing anyone and does not even deserve a reply. Putting words in people’s mouths, employing sarcasm, strawmen all around. I have no doubt you are not Syrian and you can go hang yourself for all I care.

Resorting to name-calling and anger shows that you have progressed to the second stage of acceptance (Denial – Anger – Bargaining -Depression and finally you achieve Acceptance).

You’re well on your way. We can forgive your nasty comments and mind-numbing pro-Bashar drivel. Since they’re just comments on a blog and we all know that those that label themselves “Commando’s” and such….etc have never lifted a finger much less suffered a bruise for the beliefs they supposedly stand for….they just type away and comment on blogs while sitting at home enjoying mommy’s milk and cookies.

On behalf of the Revolution, I welcome you to our side in the very near future, even if it is only from your armchair at home.

“And please dont shed your crocodile tears for Nidal or anyone else. We all know who killed him and the tens of thousands of others over the past 40 years. Shame on you for showing fake sympathy.”

You are just as vile as the creatures that said he and others that were murdered and hung publicly deserved it. You deserve to be affiliated with this disgusting revolution, only revolutions such as the one we have witnessed in Syria would we find people like you infesting it.

Not really name calling, I’m just informing you that you’re an idiot. Your psychobabble reveals your ethnicity.

Go vanish into the ether, no one gives a damn about your anonymous bullcrap. I didn’t read past your first sentence so you’re wasting your breath.

—

Observe, comrades, the only way to deal with these passive aggressive agitators is to become aggressive-aggressive, that is, aggressive raised to the second power. Only through this will their true face be revealed for all its vileness.

Calling yourself COMMANDO is just as effective as calling yourself ANONYMOUS.

If you must now, im from Halab. (bas no, i wont give you my address). So your “analysis” of my “psychobabble” (cute word habibty) needs some fine tuning before your wise powers are fully tuned to detect ethnicities.

Your “aggressive-aggressive” strategy seems to working Rambo, keep it up, look how far you’ve come! Success is close my friend! Your “…aggressive-aggressive, that is, aggressive raised to the second power” is priceless. I might have to borrow that one day and give due credit to Rambo.

SYAU:

Thank you. Inshallah khair and I wish all people, revolution supporters and pro-bashar supporters peace. We can forgive, but we cannot forget. You and Rambo make a cute couple.

While you are borrowing, take 3ar3our along with you, for you two make a perfect couple, 3ar3our who wants nothing but violence and 3ar3ouri claiming he wants peace, and blames the violence of the ‘peaceful protesters ‘ on others. All in all, you both are the same kind of person.

Thank you for asking. My little girl is good. She likes to wear little white dresses and said yesterday she does not want to be a princess…She wants to be a doctor.( ok by me as long as she does not go into Ophthalmology… I’d rather a princess)

>Calling yourself COMMANDO is just as effective as calling yourself ANONYMOUS.

Logical Failure #1: Not at all, because, if you bother to look outside this website, you will see that I use this name consistently in all my commentary. I chose it with careful reasoning after much deliberation.

I bet you thought “anonymous is cool”, “I am leeeejooon”, “I want that cool mask”. Poor little kid. One day you’ll get real power I promise you, some CIA agent will find you a job as an undercover janitor. (too bad it’ll all be playing inside your head as you clean out toilets for the rest of your life)

>If you must now, im from Halab.

Questionable claim #1: No Halabi is this stupid.

Syntax/Grammatical Error #1: It should be KNOW not NOW in this sentence.

How hard is this for the Assad crowd to understand. Six month ago, I argued for the inevitability of freedom and dignity. But you are right, fear continue to motivate the supporters of this Anti-historical regime into defying historical inevitability and logic. We are all concerned, but their lack of depth of vision, and lack is clearly reflected in their street language and lack of capacity for decent dialog.

Now we have a new farce, they now tell us, once more through a non-Syrian intermediary, of a new Syria, cooked somewhere in complete secrecy, that will emerge within six months under the rule of Bashar, with a new made-to-order custom fit party for Bashar and without the current close circle around him. I say this is BS, he will never be able to get rid of those, even if he wanted to. As some have argued in the recent past, if he survives this, he will owe these shady characters much of his survival and he knows it. All else, including the panicky crowd on Syria Comment, and those poor folks who are motivated by personality-cult hiding as hypernationalism, are disposable to the Ruling Family.

I repeat again, those who showed loyalty will demand the price, which is their continuing and increased ability to rob the Syrian people of their wealth, liberty, and dignity and to continue to rule by decree and whim, exactly the same way they are now managing this crisis. A price most Syrians are no longer willing to pay for the sake of maintaining the Royal Family.

We are entering the 5th month of this uprising, with every single one of the regime’s conspiratorial strategies failing miserably to contain the public anger. Their theatrical farces are turning back on them, and in all of this, He continues to fail to introduce a vision, and when that vision is leaked, as a test bomb, we find that it is neither visionary, nor original. It still treats the Syrian People as mere sheeps to follow the dictates of the hereditary leader, who now tells us, through his non-syrian media, that he is getting out of his fathers’s clothes, something better done at a psychologist office and not through playing with the fate of the nation.

I pity those who think of themselves as progressives/secular and who continue to support this regime under the claim that what is coming is an overtaking of the country by bunch of crazed fanatics. As you have captured, rather well, even a casual examination of their rhetoric leads to its origin. Never stopping to recognize that they are parroting the same stuff Daniel Pipes has been hyperventilating for years, and that they are acting no different than the most reactionaries of right wingers in Israel and the US. They simply show that they are fake, for a true progressive will never tolerate tyranny, let alone advocating for its continuity under a dirty game called peaceful transition.

Well, I do trust this regime and its head only to be deceptive, devious, secretive, non-transparent, treacherous, and careless with the needs and wants of the Syrian People. Trusting it and its head to lead transition is at best naive and self deceptive, and at worst complete idiocy compounded with callousness.

It is on these assumptions that any dialog must be predicated. It should be a dialog that preempt their attempts to incite further division and hatred in the country, and to ensure that they do not continue their violent crimes against the Syrian People. Dialog should be carried out, but with those the opposition chooses as representatives, not with those selected by Buthaina, or by the various mukhabarat agencies. The young people marching in the streets liberated Syrians from their fear, they deserve to be heard. What we have seen so far, is the president meeting with groups selected for him by his security agencies, and in some cases such as that in Aleppo, represent those deep in drug dealing and other criminal activities, and in suppressing any attempt of city dwellers to raise their voices. Pity him him for believing that the Syrians love him from such a biased, skewed sample.

The discredited “OFF THE WALL” returns, with the usual low-quality venomous commentary. Much like he accused me of illegal activity, he continues on here, with the most dubious of claims:

>I repeat again, those who showed loyalty will demand the price, which is their continuing and increased ability to rob the Syrian people of their wealth, liberty, and dignity and to continue to rule by decree and whim, exactly the same way they are now managing this crisis.

They can’t afford to make demands now. The momentum has swung against them, such that if Bashaar tomorrow speaks out their name if they try to cause trouble, they’ll have to flee the country. This is in sharp contrast to the situation as it was last year, where Bashaar would face a coup if he dared lift his finger against them.

You’re completely disconnected from the situation in Syria, you’re simply trying to promote negativity in the process. You don’t want it to move forward. You want it to move backwards and sideways, into your control. Just like every other opportunist. It is a sickening display and you’re not fooling me.

You don’t give a DAMN about Syria. You don’t give a DAMN about democracy. You want the chaos to continue so you sink your venom deep into any hope people have to move forward. It is quite fortunate that the collective mind of the Syrian people have moved to recognise exactly what you and your ilk (the naysayers) are all about.

Your reign of terror has almost run its course and soon you will be left alone with the memory of your treachery. How you will live with yourself after that, I don’t know.

They can’t afford to make demands now. The momentum has swung against them, such that if Bashaar tomorrow speaks out their name if they try to cause trouble, they’ll have to flee the country. This is in sharp contrast to the situation as it was last year, where Bashaar would face a coup if he dared lift his finger against them.

If your words are true, and may they be, then who was it that swung the Momentum, Bashar with his counterproductive speeches, Buthaina with her eloquence, Addunyia and Syrian TV with their pathetic laughable coverage, the regime thugs shooting at their countrymen, and torturing them em-mass, or is it the people on the streets who you and your gang of verbal thugs on this site never tire of calling for their murder. You should be praising them and recognizing that when Alex called for a shock to the regime, it is they who responded to his call and gave the jolt, you and your pathetic pseudo-secular, pseudo-militarist, pseud-in everything to touch, failed to give for 11 years.

I am may be disconnected from the ground in Syria, but unlike you, I am not disconnected from liberty, for I live it, cherish it, and want it for the people of my country of origin. You live it, but never understood it or internalized it, and you have made that obvious for all to see.

You mean speeches which inspired millions into the streets of Syria in favour of the reform? How is that counter-productive?

>Addunyia and Syrian TV with their pathetic laughable coverage

Laughable and pathetic as in the only media who actually bothered investigating the facts and pointing out lies?

>the regime thugs shooting at their countrymen

You mean terrorists, foreign and domestic, shooting at both police, army and civilians (whether protesting or not?).

>and torturing them em-mass,

You mean how the terrorists starting spraying an irritant and carcinogenic substance on people in Homs, turning many of them in the heat into mindless zombies?

You mean how the terrorists destroyed power generators, water and crops in Jisr al-Shaghour and Idleb to create a humanitarian disaster?

You mean how Erdogan is keeping 10,000 people hostage in camps and letting only a few hundred out at a time as a form of collective punishment?

>is it the people on the streets who you and your gang of verbal thugs on this site never tire of calling for their murder.

You mean, again, putting words in our mouth and writing libelous statements which that I warned you not to? This is your second warning. The next one will be from a lawyer. I know what you’re trying to do and I will not let you take a single inch forward.

Let’s face it, your don’t care about liberty, you just like to spice up your posts to such empty symbols. You don’t care about Syria, it’s just the land and the regional power you care about taking over. You are your kind have no future in Syria. When this is all over, mark my word, you will probably do a 180 and pretend you were for the reforms all along. But, if you have an inch of internal-honesty, you will be crying on the inside towards the crimes and lies you have supported. This episode of your life, I guarantee, will haunt what is left of your conscience for the rest of your life.

There can be no answer to the above quoted rancid policies because they are indefensible- and STILL operative, with slight variations ala Kings Torah and similar stench.

As I wrote in my earlier post #164, its high time everyone began studying the Talmud- which is considered by most jews to be above Torah- with the same severity as the media has been going after the Qoran. Investigate all those books equally. ‘Democratic’ analysis for one and all is the reform they’re advocating in Syria, right? Lets begin with their sacred doctrines for a change- which always get a free pass.

I couldn’t agree more. Its sad to see Assad supporters and apologists claim that Bashar’s ‘reforms’ need time and that the Revolution needs to open a dialog after the slaughter of thousands (recently and historically). Why has Bashar chosen NOW to reform? What about the last 11 years? (to which assad-supports say, as his sole achievement: “he brought us the internet”…as if Bashar invented it. Your right, fear motivates the majority of government supporters and they express this fear via anger, hatred and paranoia.

People outside Syria (media…etc) and assad-loyalists forget/ignore the fact that the majority of Syria has been angry for a long time, not just over the past 5 months, and that thousands have been murdered/tortured over the decades in return for “Security’. And as for ‘Stability’ our families have been blacklisted, arrested and threatened and had to move to the various khaleeji countries to find decent work (and even there we’ve been afraid to speak out against al-assad & co) and wait 5 years to get our exemption from the ‘honorable’ army.

Im done arguing about the foreign salafi/jihadi/sunni/militant/terrorist conspiracy. As you said, its a page ripped straight from the Wolfowitz / Cheney / Rumsfield doctrine. And the other ‘farces’ as you mentioned (pills distributed by foreign media, refugees visiting family members en masse, tortured bodies of children blamed on ‘decomposition’ by leading government ‘experts’…..etc.

Rambo,

I thought you weren’t replying to my posts anymore? Using the words ‘factual’ and ‘logical’ over and over dont make your posts sound any smarter habibty. And yes, I am from Halab, try me ya batal ya Rambo!

You keep saying You mean, No I don’t. I only meant what I wrote. As for your own assertion, they are your own, so better say I mean when you are trying to challenge someones else’s writing.

As for my own future in Syria. I have said, again six months ago, that I am aware of my own irrelevance to what happens on the streets and urged, in most polite language Bashar to be a brave person. It seems that I am truly irrelevant because my calls were not heeded. So why do you bother responding to me, if both of us agree that I am an Irrelevant low quality writer.

By the way, I would take your last paragraph as a complement, for at least you are willing to acknowledge that I have a conscious that will make me cry for the havoc, you claim I am advocating. I think ANONYMOUS expressed similar sentiment about you, and I ask for Anonymous’s permission to thank you for reciprocating.

This is great! Mabrook! Your a hero! You’ve discovered yet another plot! Only this one is the so-called ‘motherlode’!!!!

184. SYRIAN COMMANDO said:

“You mean how the terrorists starting spraying an irritant and carcinogenic substance on people in Homs, turning many of them in the heat into mindless zombies?”

So Rambo, What is this MYSTERIOUS and DANGEROUS substance? Can you please explain? Were the carcinogens sprayed to give the zombies cancer? Can zombies even get cancer? Was the irritant especially formulated to force the people of Homs to only shout anti-bashar slogans? How was the substance sprayed? Was it via airplane? Crop-dusters? Maybe the International Space Station beamed the substance from space onto the unwitting masses gathered in Homs? Im assuming you have a PhD in Chemistry right? Please do explain the ‘logic’ and ‘factual’ (since you love those words) arguments and evidence supporting your very serious and im sure rock-solid case.

If you think “factual” and “logical” in a sentence is reason enough to make it sound smart, then it’s quite worrying. I’m amazed you can string together a sentence my dear. Your black and white thinking is not doubt a product of your American indoctrination.

I only replied to every aspect of your post to demonstrate that I can indeed tear everything you say to shred if I had the time to spare and if you were worthwhile. A smarter rodent would have scurried back into the hole in the wall where it belonged.

As for the substance, one of the agitators who was spraying people with it in Homs was captured. The substance was analysed and it was a watered down irritant which is a known carcinogen. I will have to go through my twitter archive to find it, so I’ll just put it on my TODO list. We need a wiki tracking this conspiracy.

As for “stages”, I’d welcome you into the next stage of your evolution: H. erectus, but you’re not even in the same tree.

OTW,

I’m just making you face up to the facts that you want to ignore, OTW.

I just read this on twitter:

>Unlike Syrians abroad syrians here talk politics without taking it personally or fighting even though they hold opposite views. #Syria

Syria has changed, massively. You just don’t want to see it. You don’t want to acknowledge the truth. You’re either destroying yourself (internally) or your country (willfully). You admit, you’re disconnected from the on-goings in Syria, you thus admit that you are openly accepting one narrative and completely discarding the other.

Let me ask you to use a a different mindset, if you’re willing to even try:

If you wanted to change Syria right now, what are the most important changes along with the changes you want to see the most? Please exclude all reactionary changes and just tell me what your main ideas are.

Sorry, i know that i said i was done with the back-and-forth banter with pro-assad supporters due to how ridiculous the claims and conspiracies have become, but the last comment from Rambo (aka COMMANDO) was just too good to let it go.

Anonymous
As far as history is concern terrorist organizations like MB will go straight into it’s garbage.I am not talking about a person,and I know that Bashar is just like us he
Will be going as any other human being.I am talking about a nation which is not let undergo the law of nature ,nothing happening now is natural.there is some political agenda which we are all aware of,and that is separation of Syrian -Iranian -HA Axis,it has to be done,with whatever collateral damage done to Syria.The west is fighting Iran in Syria,Syria is being looked at as Iran’s nails,they have to be trimmed or cut.MB traitors are being used to achieve that result.
As far as 99%of terrorists in the world being Sunni Moslems is not Assad or my fault ,if it makes you feel better will call them:MB terrorist or Islamic extremist or jihadist or….تعددت الاسما والارهاب واحد

Did you just say your ‘neutral’? Seriously? and you base this ‘neutrality’ based on your past posts?………

So your ‘proof’ is Adduniya TV? Really? i mean really? And did they really say that one of the effects of this substance is “Lack of proper appreciation for things”…and “Jumping, Laughing and Hysteria”? And the proof of the spraying in Homs is a video of a Yemeni spraying water on fellow Yemeni protesters (whom we are assured were not hot, since i assume Adduniya took weather measurements on that cool day in Sana, Rami Mahlouf sapres no expense fir such useful things)?

So were the thousands of Homsi’s all sprayed by a guy with a squirt-gun? Or from a half-litre plastic bottle?

Please, if you told me that the ‘substance’ was sprayed by US stealth bombers flying over Homs dropping mini Rambo paratroopers carrying mini squirt guns i’d believe that over your garbage Adduniya ‘proof’.

Commando
You almost fooled me for a second when you were talking about narratives to a point I was tempted to compose a response. Yet, true to expectation, you sooner than later posted the link to Syrian Comedy Central (AKA Addunya TV) so-called report about bio-agents and mass madness. How do you expect me to take you seriously, for I am at loss of words to respond now. I expect you to declare my defeat and your victory, Go ahead, be my guest, if it matters so much to you.

>How do you expect me to take you seriously, for I am at loss of words to respond now. I expect you to declare my defeat and your victory, Go ahead, be my guest, if it matters so much to you.

Wow, how predictable and very nice strawman. You won’t even indulge me with your thoughts. That’s mainly because you have no ideas, I’m right aren’t I? You just want the ouster of the current government and a substitution thinking things will “just get better”.

Move on people, these clowns are wasting your time.

They rely on al khanzeera all day and call addounia “the comedy channel”.

I’m so frustrated and sad that these pathetic excuses for human beings are here trying to pretend they are reasonable people when they can’t accept opposing opinions and conflicting facts.

There was a flood of posts from one poster who still insists on “sharing” videos and images of dead people to remind us that people are dying in Syria. The manager at Samiramis hotel was supposedly hostile to the meeting that took place today and “failed”.
The message is the same: we need moderation from both sides and we need security forces to be restrained and be held accountable. There is strong suspicions that Bashar is unable to act as the head of state when he is faced with intense pressure from “the hawks” to let security chiefs do their job and focus on political issues.the problem with this approach is that the security solution was and still is a major factor in rising anti regime feelings and the increased level of violence that we witnessed few weeks ago. Without dialogue and leadership from civilian leaders I do not see a real way out any time soon.
The removal of Hama’s governor was due to his “failure” to prevent a massive demonstration two days ago and suspicions that he is sympathetic to the opposition,some may still think he was removed because people did not like him.

I just ignore the comments, treating it as the actions of a spastic-autistic anti-social commentator.

People in Hama absolutely hate that governor, the fact that people are saying otherwise really amuses me. There are so many opportunists in the foreign anti-Syrian group, they hope no one will see the inconsistencies in their position.

its true history repeat itself no doubt about that ,but to understand what history will repeat itself you need to know what you reality we live in , for the revolutionists Syria s like Egypt or Tunis or Syria is still the same they left in the 80s ,any Syrian will write books about the corruption and many negative things in Syria if you ask him , BUT that dose not call for revolution against the government or the president and surely dose not call for revolution , you accuse everyone in here of being supporter and fo Bashar because he is either benefits or in denial because you are in denial yourself , people are not neccecerlly supporting the government but for sure same people are against the revolution because the revuloton did not sell itself to the decent citizens.

i know Bashar has support not only because of the massive rallies we saw in support of his reform but because of the massive resistance this revolution is facing from the decent Syrian people

‘To say that the “ONLY” man to have influence is Al 3r 3oor shows you know very little or next to nothing about whats going on.’
can you enlighten me ? give me one other name that if he tells those people to stop do Tkbeer and Takseer they will respond ! the sad fact is 3ar3orisim is the trademark of this revolution otherwise we would have seen better quality and quantity of people demonstrating
you wrote to SyrianNoKandahar
‘And please dont shed your crocodile tears for Nidal or anyone else. We all know who killed him and the tens of thousands of others over the past 40 years. Shame on you for showing fake sympathy.’
that’s my friend discredet you because off course we all know who killed Nidal we saw them on youtube ,we saw them on photos and we saw them on TV admitting , you clearly don’t know who is Nidal or you think other readers of the blog don’t

Another small step in the right direction, meeting of another part of the oppositions in Semiramis, they argued, they yelled, they disagreed they agreed, they even fight and they had something to say, and we all have to listen, all of this is healthy and smart baby steps forward, I support my Syrian brothers and sisters in everything they do in a way to move forward and they are doing the right thing.
I agree with SC when he state that the expats are out of touch with what`s happening inside the homeland and that people there are actually smarter and way better than us, they `TALK`, they `DEBATE`, they try very hard to come up with solutions, they are real and we are delusional.
They are the ones we all need to support in whatever we could, I have hope for Syria and I trust Syrians living in the homeland of being able to have solutions for this extremely dangerous conflict:

The regime allowed this meeting but did not expect,or may be they did,anybody to “deviate” from the announced program. As soon as a guy,I would like to know his name,declared that he wants the regime to be toppled he was physically attacked and kicked out,then a group of Bashar supporters,remember that was supposed to be an opposition meeting,started chanting god,Syria and Bashar only. Going back to why we need a regime change and why after 55 years of independence Syria is still a third world country.
Seculars need a guarantor of civil rights after an inevitable regime change,and Bashar does not equal Syria,so if he cannot perform and reform he needs to retire,and the army will serve as the guarantor until there is a civil elected government in charge.infiltrating an opposition meeting was intentional and the idea was to make the opposition looks bad.no wonder many opposition figures did not bother to attend,they knew what was being cooked,and no wonder the tv guy kept filming !!
The regime and that guy had the same objective: they want the meeting to fail.

Small steps! France didn`t get democracy in 4 months, The States didn’t get democracy in 4 months, in Taiwan and Korea they still beat each others in the parliament though they`ve been practicing democracy for more than 4 months..give it time people, let Syrians grow into democracy not the other way around. Sooner or later they will have rules and they will play within it, give them some time instead of criticizing every little small step they do.

its true history repeat itself no doubt about that ,but to understand what history will repeat itself you need to know what you reality we live in , for the revolutionists Syria s like Egypt or Tunis or Syria is still the same they left in the 80s ,any Syrian will write books about the corruption and many negative things in Syria if you ask him , BUT that dose not call for revolution against the government or the president and surely dose not call for revolution , you accuse everyone in here of being supporter and fo Bashar because he is either benefits or in denial because you are in denial yourself , people are not neccecerlly supporting the government but for sure same people are against the revolution because the revuloton did not sell itself to the decent citizens.

i know Bashar has support not only because of the massive rallies we saw in support of his reform but because of the massive resistance this revolution is facing from the decent Syrian people

‘To say that the “ONLY” man to have influence is Al 3r 3oor shows you know very little or next to nothing about whats going on.’
can you enlighten me ? give me one other name that if he tells those people to stop do Tkbeer and Takseer they will respond ! the sad fact is 3ar3orisim is the trademark of this revolution otherwise we would have seen better quality and quantity of people demonstrating
you wrote to SyrianNoKandahar
‘And please dont shed your crocodile tears for Nidal or anyone else. We all know who killed him and the tens of thousands of others over the past 40 years. Shame on you for showing fake sympathy.’
that’s my friend discredet you because off course we all know who killed Nidal we saw them on youtube ,we saw them on photos and we saw them on TV admitting , you clearly don’t know who is Nidal or you think other readers of the blog don’t

With all due respect my friend, you’re wasting your time. Him and OTW are both clowns. They have their ears and eyes closed, already made up their minds. No new information can enter and no original ideas can leave.

FYI & be xxxtra carful please….
Many of the personalities on this form \comments are Mokhabart and part of the new misinformation strategy created by the group “ We love Bashar” “ ot MenHiback” …
I have be monitoring this form for a while and the same group of commentators are available for replies 24/7 ….

Please tell me what kind of opposition, beats people up for making a statement while shouting “Allah, Souriya, Bashar w bas” ? Not to mention the guy jumping up and down yelling “you killed the Syrian army” … was there a guy spraying AMPHETAMINES (A.K.A irritants/carcinogens) in there as well ? LOL

The following is not addressed to you Jad, just so there’s no confusion.

NK,
🙂 small steps, after couple times of the same thing they will learn not to do that, just believe in the ‘Syrianism’ we are quick learner breeds.
Who went all the way to Spain and build ‘Andalusia’ can do something good back home. Just believe in our people.

Guys, its pointless. I knew Rambo (COMMANDO) had pretty much zero credibility from his past “neutral” posts. But the “terrorists spraying irritants…” comment and the ‘highly credible’ link was just too much. That took the cake as they say. And to top it off, he links to vitamin B12 boosters in a spray can that can be purchased on amazon.com by anyone in the world as the ‘secret substance’. So i guess the Yemeni kid in the video went online and bought some from amazon.com.

C’mon, this has gone way past the realm of absurdity….

LOUAI

So you think the major issue here is ONE man asking people to shout “Allahu Akbar” right? You think the people in the street are rallying only to be shot / killed / tortured / arrested and threatened because someone asked them to? Are you serious? Do you really think that low of Syrians?

And since you and the other assad-loyalists (aka Syrian Electronic Army) on this blog have gone to great length to discredit pro-revolution youtube videos, all you have offered as proof of your ‘sinister sunni/jihadi/salafi plot’ are youtube videos (some of which are re-broadcasted on Adduniya and Syria TV) as evidence????

Rambo,

You mentioned you saw “the sprayers” at multiple protests? Is this in ‘real life’? Or on youtube via Adduniya? Or were you experiencing a delusional dream brought on by exposure to this evil amazon.com vitamin B12 substance while at a protest?

Because if your experience was in ‘real-life’ then what were you doing at an anti-assad protest? Hang on a second, as an assad-loyalist i thought you guys were supposed to tow the party line that “There are no protests, everything is normal”? Ahhh, im sorry, that was a couple weeks ago….do continue….

With regards to your amazon.com vitamin B12 spray-can plot, you said you hold multiple degrees, in that case, and solely based on that statement, then of course we all believe you, i mean, why didn’t you say that from the start? You could have ended the whole argument then and there. as we all know, people with ‘multiple degrees’ need no evidence to back their claims. We’ll take your ‘multiple degree’ word for it.

This second conference at Samiramis was not an “opposition” conference. It was composed mainly of past and current independent members of Parliament (Majlis ash-Sha`b) (I think around 80 seats are reserved for independents). I don’t know who that person is who was talking about toppling the regime, but he had angered a lot of people earlier by insulting the army al-Jazeera style. People didn’t do anything when he did that and kept quiet until he decided to unilaterally declare that the “people” want to topple the regime.

Even though everyone in Syria wants to see change, it is very naive to start assuming that everyone in these conferences wants to go as far as toppling the regime. Chanting for Bashar does not mean rejection of a more representative Parliament with free elections.

By the way, a current independent member of Parliament, Habash (I forgot his first name) did the same with insulting the army’s role and has been doing so for over a month now, and even on state TV! He hasn’t been beaten… yet, lol. I think anyone who wants to undermine the army’s role, and especially during the current crisis, should be viewed with suspicion. Not beaten (yet), but watched.

Also I don’t think the owner of Samiramis will accept to host such meetings anymore.

>You mentioned you saw “the sprayers” at multiple protests? Is this in ‘real life’?

Videos, I wouldn’t approach those monkeys if you paid me.

>Hang on a second, as an assad-loyalist

Your credibility is not just zero, it’s negative by now.

>We’ll take your ‘multiple degree’ word for it.

Better than taking NK’s “amphetamine” claim for it. Guess what: skin is pourous and there are many nerve irritants that can be absorbed. You don’t find the spraying suspicious at all?

Your absolutely preposterous and unreasonable. God forbid a weapon should ever make its way to your hands for many innocent people will die. Seriously, go hang yourself and spare us all. Your gadfly behaviour is atypical of Syrians who are calm and collected when trying to discuss things reasonably. You’re not fooling anyone American. Piss off.

Please do yourself a favor and read a couple pages about these compounds before you post your comments, you’re embarrassing yourself.

Vit B12 has no effect on a healthy individual (in most people it’s also not toxic even in large doses), so unless those demonstrators are vegans, alcoholics or pregnant, B12 will most likely have no effect on them.

Oh and by the way, like Amphetamines, solving this vitamin in a bucket of water and spraying people is not an effective way to administer it.

I don’t know much about that side of biology (pharmacology), but I know that skin can absorb both substances readily. I actually want a real response not just laughter. You could go a long way if you treated people with respect.

If you’re sure, I will write to Addounia and SNN to let them know.

I just know the behaviour of some of the protestors is overtly aggressive. There are some people jumping up and down infront of a rubbish bin and there’s no one on the other side listening to them. They look like they’re all on meth.

But never-mind those ‘experts’. I think your right Rambo, i believe Rami Makhloufs mouthpiece over any published material any-day. His TV station is 100% neutral and factual with no agenda or bias whatsoever.

Rambo also Said:

“God forbid a weapon should ever make its way to your hands for many innocent people will die”

Yes Rambo, im sure i could wreak tremendous havoc upon the world with a can of amazon.com vitamin b12 booster sprays. WATCH OUT! hahahahahaha….

Whats funny is how Anonymous always puts “peace” at the end of his/her comments. Its really ironic, how someone who supports the violent and bloody revolution, the violent and bloody revolutionaries and in turn the violent and bloody MB, would be wishing “peace”. Now, please tell me how your stance in this debacle of ours constitutes “peace”? Im just taking a guess here and saying that it doesnt constitute much, other than death and terrorism. Which is obviously what you support. In that case, “peace” be with you and the revolution and its affiliates. The peace that you and your homies so enthusiastically express in your violent protests.

God bless Bashar and his army, and his Syrian Electronic Army. God bless Maher. God bless all good people.

Much like “democracy” and “freedom”, “peace” is now a symbol that has been hijacked. What peace meant was an end to a conflict, now its a general symbol meaning “good”. Of course, there can be no end to general conflict while sentient beings are alive, so really the only way to achieve “peace” in the way they mean it, is to kill everyone.

This is why they as well as Israel push for “peace” — in Israel’s case they want everyone who is not a Zionist Jew to perish or become enslaved. In the case of the hardened and deaf “revolution” people on here (TARA, OTW, ANONYMOUS and a few others), they want to kill everyone who disagrees with them.

You can see why, for example, the video I posted above is of “peaceful” terrorists: they aim to rid them of their opponents, thus ending the conflict!

The symbol has been hijacked, and if I must, I will use it towards them:

i am more than happy to discuss any matter with any fellow Syrian specially from the opposition even with none Syrian ,we are going throw tough times and communicating with each other is very healthy to make a clear pictuer of at least what we want
no my friend Anonymous i would advice you to change your name and share your ideas with us under new ID but this time don’t claim you ae Syrian ,that would give you a lot of credibility even ,i think you have some knowledge to share with us but dont pretend to be a Syrian when you are not , you clearly speak very limited Arabic and from your reply to my comment you haven’t even made a google search regarding Nidal Janood to know who is he and what is his story .
Therefore i shall listen to my fellow Syrian Citizen commando and not waste my time replying to you, no disrespect but i most say you are hurting the very cause you are trying to support by pretending being some one eles .

I am unable to edit my last comment, as it has been marked as spam. Sorry for the off-topic note, but would like to respond to Jad, Abughassan and Syrian Commando and am not able to figure out what I am doing wrong.

I am becoming more adept at reading Google machine translations of Assafir and other published stories, thanks to Jad. I now know that when I read Glandular Francis it means Michel Kilo! I now know what bridge of the vacancy and tenderness and shield and other odd-in-English terms mean to Syrian geography.

Abughassan, I read you as a type of informed bellwether here at Syrian Comment. Never do you stoop to insult, you offer analysis and sober comment, and never dehumanize or otherwise denigrate fellow Syrians. I respect you sir, and thank you. From my distance in Vancouver, with no personal connections to Syria but a heart caught by events, you provide a voice that rings true and sincere, and I know that you could sit in a room with conferees and emerge with consensus. If I had to place you on a kind of political spectrum representing Syrian opinion, I hope I would be accurate to see you as the absolute centre here.

My only disagreement with you might be over posting videos of mourners or killings. This is reality, and some of us do not have the connections of Revlon to be aware of the details. He names names, he invites grieving for those who may have been brutalized by shadowy forces of security. The story of the son arrested and returned dead is heartbreaking. I understand your anguish at these deaths and horrors, but can it be shut away? All the passings are marked by grief and shock and sorrow. Please allow more room for Revlon’s anguish in your heart . . . and do not merely assign him to a group that ‘exploits’ such things.

In some senses Revlon is just one or two steps away from the organizations of the LCCs, so in another way it is important to the breadth of the forum’s range of opinion that this perspective and message be noted, not dismissed.^

— I have several further links giving names of the folks in the Semiramis Lights Out initiative, but am not able to post anything with links today. Will try again later . . .

The regime allowed this meeting but did not expect,or may be they did, anybody to “deviate” from the announced program. As soon as a guy,I would like to know his name, declared that he wants the regime to be toppled he was physically attacked and kicked out, then a group of Bashar supporters, remember that was supposed to be an opposition meeting, started chanting god,Syria and Bashar only. Going back to why we need a regime change and why after 55 years of independence Syria is still a third world country.

The fellow who got a bit shouty at the Lights Out meeting was the former pastor at Adra Prison, one Majid Radwan Salha. He resigned from his job in a statement subsequent to his expulsion by Al-Ghoulian and friends, released on video here**. The grey-haired man who struck Salha is loyalist Zuhair Al-Ghaloum

The odd things about the altercation have been listed already, but what struck me was the shoutiness of Salha; I wonder if he would not have been struck by Al-Ghaloum and subsequently ejected had he not been so loud. It was obvious Salha had captured some of the microphones of the press contingent, so why not just seize the opportunity, have a lengthy say and then go for dinner with colleagues? Surely the media would have let every single person there yammer on at the cameras given the chance . . . so I wish Salha had used his moment in a different way.

That said, the organizer Mohammed Al-Habash (independent MP) got a bit shouty himself, as seen in the lengthy Day-Press video report** of the National Initiative (Lights Out) meetings. Note Al-Ghoulian beside him. One more video** from the folks that provided Jad’s link suggest that zero actual conferring happened in the dark ballroom. No one sat down. No one suggested a moment of silence. Nobody distributed the agenda and moved that the conferring members get down to discussion. Essentially a bunch of unnamed folks jostling for cameras to yap at.

What would have happened there at the Semiramis, too, had the hotel management, under control of owners Salim and Muhammad Deeb Daaboul, initially did their job of hosting an approved meeting? If someone sowed disorder there, who?

And if it turns out only 40 of the ‘independent’ contingent actually managed to get past hotel staff/security . . . who were the rest of the folks who stormed into the gathering — the same ones who shouted for Bashar?

Majid Radwan Salha, pastor of the Adra prison until this expulsion. He quit his position, and made a video statement here: http://goo.gl/Ujn6z

Al-Habash is an moderate islamist Independent Worker and Peasant sector MP for Damascus, Comrade, an imam – Director of the al-Assad Qur’an Institute, rumoured to have been a confidant of the present president.